


Reserved For The Gays (closeted and otherwise)

by zimzamgoddamn (ilikethattrenchcoatguy)



Category: Band of Brothers, The Pacific - Fandom
Genre: Cuties, I AM SORRY, M/M, cars are filled with gummy bears, it's kind of there, lots of boy love, same with Guarnere/Toye, warning there is some abuse, you can see Skip/Malarkey if you want
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-16
Updated: 2015-01-07
Packaged: 2018-03-01 16:32:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 24
Words: 48,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2780030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilikethattrenchcoatguy/pseuds/zimzamgoddamn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When David Webster moves to San Francisco in the middle of his sophomore year he expected it to be awkward. What he did not expect was to be taken into a group of friends and accepted as one of their own without a second thought. What he really did not expect was to meet someone like Joe Liebgott. Joe is infuriating. He finds fault with everything David does, and he always yells at him for flirting with girls even though he knows he's really gay. Oh, and also he smirks as if he knows what that does to David's heart and that's just really not fair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Brand New House For Me To Break

**Author's Note:**

> This was written because I have too many feels. I don't think there are too many character from Band of Brothers I'm not in love with so.... also this is tagged as the Pacific fandom as well... but there isn't that much Pacific in it. A few really minor characters is all. Read it though, please, and tell me if you like it.

           David Webster’s first day at his new school was in the middle of his sophomore year. And for some reason his parents didn’t understand why he wasn’t excited.

            “Mom, you don’t get it. Everyone’s already settled into their classes, everyone has friends. I’m going to be the awkward new kid. There’s no way I’m going to be able to just, like, slip in unnoticed.”

            His mother smiled at him,

            “David, you should never want to go unnoticed.”

            David sighed. Why his parents decided to move to San Francisco, he would never know. Something about a better job hunt, but the thing was, his parents had jobs in Boston. They left those jobs to come here. That didn’t make any sense to him.           They pulled up to the new house with the moving trucks behind them, and David had to admit he was impressed. It was a large house, bigger than the one they’d had in Boston, which much more land. It had three floors, complete with three baths, a living room, a dining room, a parlor, two offices, and five bedrooms. Why they needed all that space when there was only the three of them was another question David couldn’t answer. Sometimes he thought it was so his parents could go entire days without seeing him.

            “Grab a box, David.” His father told him, as he opened his car door. David turned and pulled the first box he saw, labeled “dishware” out of the Toyota. He carried it up the front steps and watched as his mother turned the new key in the lock, and opened the door. Breaking the seal on their new home as they entered. He followed her into the kitchen, and dropped the box on the floor.

            “Careful, David. Those are my good plates.” His mother warned him.

            “They’re the only plates we have.” David mumbled. His mother gave him a sharp look.       

            “Why don’t you help your father bring in the furniture?”

            So he spent the next two hours dragging in couches, dressers, chairs, and boxes, boxes, boxes. His parents were not the type of people to leave things and start fresh, so they had brought everything with them from the old house. They had stripped that place down to the bare walls and packed it all away neatly to be arranged anew at the new home. They did not buy a single new thing. Not that they couldn’t afford to. David wasn’t sure what his parents made, but he knew it was enough that they would be living in luxury for the rest of their lives.

            Finally when the last box was dropped on the floor, (“Careful, David.” “They’re books, mom.”) after David had helped his father push the furniture around the living room with his mother orchestrating, his dad finally stood with his hands on hips and said,

            “Why don’t you go upstairs and pick a room out.” David happily obliged, not because he was excited about the new place, but because he was exhausted and desperate to get away from his parents. David and his parents had an amiable relationship. They ate dinner around the same table, talked about their days, and all pretended to listen and care. David brought home A+ report cards that his mother could brag to her coworkers about. David’s parents paid for vacations to Europe, where he got his own hotel room and made his own schedule and really only saw them at dinner.

            David knew how quickly this good grace could turn though, if he, for instance, brought home a D (it was calculus in eighth grade) stayed out past nine on a school night, (there was an accident on the main road back to house, he was stuck in traffic for forty-five minutes) or, god forbid, got in trouble with the police (his friends were too drunk to climb the fence escaping the party and he wasn’t just gonna _leave_ them). His parents could turn vicious, telling him what a disappointment he was, and how if this behavior continued he’d amount to nothing.

            So he brought home the A’s and already had the application to Harvard written up. And his parents still loved him.

            David brought his backpack upstairs and peered into each doorway he passed, trying to pick which room would be best. It needed enough space for his bookshelves, it needed a place for his desk. It needed walls for his posters. It needed a big window. It needed to be as far as possible from the room he thought his parents would choose. He walked down the hall, then turned around. He counted again, there were only four bedrooms. But he swore the papers said there should be five.

He opened his mouth to call out to his dad when he noticed the rope hanging from the ceiling. There was an outline of a set of pull-down stairs. He walked over and tugged on it slowly, so as not to create a loud noise when the stairs hit the floor. There was light coming from the attic, so there had to be windows up there. He climbed up and looked around. He decided it was not an attic, it was the fifth bedroom.

The stairs came up behind him with a bang that startled him. He knew his parents probably couldn’t hear it though.

The space was vast, smooth, finished hardwood, the ceiling was slanted but high enough that there was no worry of bumping his head. There was the skeleton of a bed stripped of its mattress in the corner, and a lone light bulb in the center of the room. The room was lit enough by the window that he didn’t bother pulling the string. He dropped his bag by the bed and walked over to the window. It wasn’t slanted and he realized that was because it didn’t open directly into the roof, there was a large ledge right below it, a balcony of sorts. He could picture himself reading out there in the summer and immediately knew this was his room.

He pushed the stairs back down and when he exited into the hallway his mother was standing there.

“I see you found the room in the attic.” She said, he nodded.

“Yeah, I’m gonna stay there.”

“Alright. But we’re gonna have to get you a space heater of some sort, it’s bound to get chilly up there in the winter.”

He nodded again and went down to get the rest of his stuff.

His dad and him had some trouble shoving his mattress through the small stair space, but finally they had it in the attic and placed it on the box spring. His desk was in the opposite corner, his dresser was to the right of the window. His bare bookshelves lined the walls. He brought the last box up and placed it next to the others. There were six in total. David’s clothes. David’s cd’s/movies. David’s misc. David’s books. David’s books. David’s books. He started unpacking and at six his father came up to inform him they were ordering Chinese. They ate it around the kitchen table and his mom told him about the lovely couple who lived down the street they’d met on their walk while he was unpacking and how “they say they have daughter just your age and you should go over sometime to meet her. I’m sure she’s lovely.” David just nodded because he knew that was what she wanted.

“Marie, leave the boy alone. We just got here, the last thing he needs right now is a girlfriend, he needs to get settled into school first.” David’s father said across the table. David agreed. He didn’t need a girlfriend because he had to settle in to school, it didn’t have anything to do with the fact that he was gay.

After dinner David’s mother found the box with the pillows and bed sheets and gave him some to make his bed. Once he had done that he looked around the room. It was dark outside now, so he’d pulled the string to turn on the light in the center, and it did a good job illuminating the bedroom. He fell back and flopped onto his bed, which squealed.

David didn’t react the same way he thought most kids his age would when they found out they were moving across the country halfway into their high school career. He didn’t yell, or cry, or threaten to run away. He didn’t really have that many close connections he’d hate to leave. Sure he had friends, but he mostly hung out with them out of familiarity. He didn’t feel any great loss watching the city disappear in the rearview mirror. He was more confused than anything when his father told him they were moving to San Fran. But even that he didn’t dwell on too much.

It was Saturday, which meant he had tomorrow to finish unpacking, his parents would probably want to go out, see the city, meet some more of their neighbors, but the chances of them dragging him along were slim. That meant he pretty much had the whole day to himself. Just one day to get oriented in this new home, and then he had school tomorrow.

He dug out his laptop and plugged it in to the outlet near the head of his bed. He logged into his Skype, the only friend online was Leckie.

“Hey David, how’s the new abode?” His curly-haired friend asked.

“It’s alright.” David shrugged, “Excessively large but… what else should I expect from a purchase by my parents.”

“Yeah. They try to set you up with some San Fran girl yet?”

David laughed,

“I know you’re joking, but yeah, they actually have.”

“Wow. When do you think they’re gonna figure out that you’re more oriented towards the phallus than the uterus?”

“Hopefully never, and I’m never going to tell them. I cringe to think of what they’d do if they found out.”

“Yeah…”

They talked for close to an hour. David helped Leckie study for an English 2 exam on Monday David would be taking if he hadn’t left. Leckie reminded David, “If these liberal bastards don’t treat you right you’re always welcome to hitchhike your way cross country and stay with ole Robert.”

“Umm… never, just because you called yourself ‘Ole Robert’.”


	2. This Three's Company

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Webster meets the gang.

The next day was uneventful. David unpacked his books, put them all on his shelves, then went out for a walk around the neighborhood, per advice from his mother. It was one of those old neighborhoods, where it seemed like every house had been grown into the land around it. When he got back to his house he got his bag ready for school the next day. It was three weeks into the second semester, which meant all the basic foundations laid down for each class would be solid already and he would have to work like hell to catch up. The only good thing about that was that it would keep him busy. David liked being busy.

Monday came and David felt his heartbeat quicken as his mother’s car pulled up to the school. She got out with him, they had registered him online back in Boston, but she still wanted to come in, to make sure he got sent along to his classes alright. They walked to the front entrance, David looked around at the other students gathered outside of the school. He had come to a decision last night, there was no way he could just blend seamlessly into the school, not right away, so he was going to do the opposite. He was going to make himself noticeable. It was better to have them awed by the new kid, David, then laughing at him.

David was aware he was attractive, he had been told many times he had “the bluest eyes to ever blue” and a “striking jawline” so he used that to his advantage, by pointedly looking and winking at a group of girls sitting on and around a bench. Some giggled, some straight up laughed, some gave him weird looks, but overall it had the desired effect, attention.

After David and his mom talked to the student advisor and got his schedule he was left to walk to class on his own. The woman in the office had offered to have someone show him where it was, but he was assured he could find it.   

It was fifteen minutes into the beginning of class, so the halls were empty. He came upon the door to class A1015, Econ. He took a deep breath before knocking on the door.

 

“Okay can anyone give us an example of symbolism from the book?” The teacher asked. David was in his second block class, English 2. First block had gone by all right. The teacher introduced him to the class, gave him a seat near the front, and lectured the room for an hour on the merits of foreign exchange rate. More than once David heard some girls whispering behind him and when he turned around then went silent and looked away. He smirked as he turned back forward in his seat.

When the bell rang the kid to the right of him stood up and started stretching, before heaving his backpack on his shoulders.

“Hey, you know where you’re going next?” The boy asked, he had tousled light brown hair and a face that was already developing laugh lines. David shrugged.

“I have English, but I don’t really know where it is.”

“I can show you if you want.”

“Yeah sure, thanks.”

“I’m Skip, by the way, Skip Muck.” The boy said as they walked out into the hallway.

“David Webster. But I’m sure you already knew that.”

Skip nodded.

“Where did you live before here?”

“Boston, my dad taught at Harvard.”

Skip looked impressed,

“No shit. So why did you guys move.”

David shrugged,

“Hell if I know.”

They arrived in front of a classroom door, Skip nodded to it.

“So this is it. English 2.”

“Thanks man.”

“No problem, figured you’d need a friendly on your first day, and I am nothing it not friendly.” He grinned, “By the way, totally digging the shirt.” David looked down at his Arctic Monkeys tee.

“You like them?”

“Love them.”

Skip said bye and David went into the class, the teacher was standing over a desk and he went right to her.

“Hi, I’m David Webster, I’m new.” She gave him a book, told him he needed to read to chapter ten by the end of the week, and told him to pick a seat, this time he sat more in the center of the class. When she asked about symbolism in the novel his hand shot right up.

“Yes, Mr. Webster?”

“The paperweight Winston buys symbolizes his attempt to reconnect with the past.”

“Correct, very good!”

Later, when the teacher asked them to partner up to talk about totalitarianism, the boy in front of Webster turned around.

“Hey, Webster, right?”

“Yeah, it’s David.”

“How the hell did you know the answer to that question?” The boy had dark brown hair, and darker brown eyes. And he had an accent that was distinctly Cajun.

“We read 1984 last semester in my old English class.”

“Wow, you better not tell Mrs. Grogan that, or she’ll make you read something else. She’s like that. Wanna be my partner?”

“Yeah sure.”

“Sweet.” The kid turned his desk around.

“What was your name?’ David asked.

“Oh, sorry, it’s Eugene Roe.” Eugene stuck his hand out and David shook it. “Yeah, I’m not from here either. I’m sure you can tell from the accent, but I was born in Louisiana. Just came here last year.”

“Oh wow.”

“Hey boys, whataya we talking about?” A third boy, this one with lighter hair, and skin, dragged a chair over.

“You, Guarnere. And how you obviously don’t understand what the word partners means.” Eugene said.

“There’s an uneven number, dipshit, and I asked the teach, she said this three’s company would work.” Guarnere replied with a grin. Then he turned and looked at David.

“Woah, look at the pretty new boy here.” He leaned forward, closer to David. “Man, look at those gorgeous eyes.”

“Careful, Bill, starting to sound pretty gay there.” Eugene said, looking down to pull his battered copy of 1984 out of his bag. Guarnere looked over at him,

“Hey, I’m not the gay one around here.”

David stiffened, for a split second he thought he was talking about him. But then he realized that one, there was no way in hell they could already know, and two, he was looking straight at Eugene.

“You’re gay?” David asked Gene. He nodded.

“Is that gonna be a problem, prettyboy?” Guarnere said to him. David shook his head.

“No, no. Trust me.” He smirked, realizing that Guarnere probably thought he was a homophobe.

“Good. Cause this is San Fran, not whatever the hell conservative state you came from.”

“I’m from Massachusetts.”

“Okay, so I wasn’t wrong.”

“Believe me guys, I’m not against gays, I’m very for the whole dudes fucking dudes thing, actually. _Very_ for it.” He stressed his words to get his point across.

“Oh.” Guarnere said slowly, then his eyes widened. “Oh!”

“Yeah.” David nodded.

“Well I’m just surrounded by queers aren’t I?” Guarnere asked no one.

“Oh please, I’ve seen you and Toye on the floor of your basement.” Eugene said.

“That is wrestling! A completely heterosexual activity!”

“Really? Cause all I see is two sweaty boys rolling around on the floor together.”

“With the objective of ending up on top!” Guarnere defended himself.

“If you want to be the top that’s up to you.” Eugene shrugged. Guarnere’s eyes widened when he’d realized what he’d said. He looked around for a comeback.

“Yeah, well…. You’re sleeping with a ginger!”

Eugene shrugged and looked at David when he laughed,

“He’s not wrong.” He glanced down at his open book. “Now please, can we get on to totalitarianism?”

When the class ended David felt substantially better about the school. Eugene was really cool, and besides the comments about David’s “pretty face” Guarnere was alright too. David found out his first name was Bill, and he was purebred Italian, raised in Philly.

“Just like Homeboy’s twink.” Guarnere nodded to Eugene.

The bell rang and Guarnere was off in an instant, bag slung over his shoulder, with a called “See, ya Gene, Marilyn.”

“Marilyn?” David asked, picking up his own bag to shove his book into while Eugene spun his desk back around.

“I believe he is calling you that because as he said early, “you are pretty.”

“Jesus.” David remarked.

“Hey, Guarnere’s alright, you just gotta give it back to him, then he’ll respect you.” They walked out of the class and into the crowded hallway.

“So what do you have now?” Eugene asked.

“Health.” David replied. Eugene laughed. “What?” David said.

“Oh, nothing it’s just. Looks like you’ve been gifted with two classes with Guarnere. That’s what he’s got now too.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, and his buddy Joe Toye’s in that class too. So that should be a blast. It also means you have second lunch. I have fourth, but I’m sure Bill will let you sit with him. Edward has that lunch too so just tell him you’re friends with me and you’ll be fine.”

“Edward?”

“Yeah, Heffron, my boyfriend. The ginger from Philly.” Eugene explained.

“Oh.” The walked down the hallway in silence after that. Eugene wasn’t exactly shy or anything, but David could tell that he was just as comfortable in quiet as in talking. Which David could appreciate. They got to the end of the hall.

“Health room is right there.” Eugene pointed to a door down to the right. “My class is this way.” He turned towards the right. David nodded in understanding.

“Alright, it was nice meeting you.”

“Yeah, same, see you tomorrow.” They went their separate ways.

For the third time today David walked into a new classroom, went to the teacher’s desk, and introduced himself as “David Webster, the new kid.” For the third time today he had to pick a seat in a group of people who’d already had their seats selected for two weeks. This time was easier though because once David turned to the class he heard a voice call from the back,

“Webster! Yo, Webster, back here!” David walked towards the voice and saw Guarnere. He was sitting next to a taller boy, with close cropped black hair and tan skin.

“It’s David.” David said, as he dropped his bag below the desk in front of Guarnere.

“Yeah okay, Webster.” Guarnere turned to the boy next to him. “Webster, this is my main man, Joe Toye. Toye, this is the new kid Webster.”

“Heya, Webster.” Toye nodded at him.

“My buddy, Toye here, is gonna be a professional fighter when he gets out of this dump.”

“Oh really?” David raised his eyebrows at Toye, who sighed.

“You show him your brass knuckles _one time_.” He mumbled, David laughed.

“No really though!” Guarnere interjected. “You are! You have to! You’re great at it. Now, Webster…” He looked over at the brunette, “he would not want to be a fighter. Wouldn’t want to mess up that pretty face of his.” It was David who sighed this time, turning to Toye,

“Is he always this homoerotic?”

Toye laughed. Then the class started. They were learning about abortions, apparently. Webster learned quickly that the teacher was not one to dance around subjects that might make some uncomfortable, he plowed right through them.

“Does anyone know someone who has had an abortion?” He asked, no one raised their hand and the room got relatively silent. Then Guarnere yelled out,

“Maybe you should ask Webster, he’s such a pretty girl, he’s probably been knocked up loads of times.” Then everybody was laughing and David remembered what Eugene said about giving it right back to him.

“Maybe you should ask Guarnere’s mom, she probably looked into it a lot when she got pregnant with him.” Then it got silent again and David wondered if maybe he’d taken it to far. Until Guarnere started laughing.

“You’re alright, Webster.” He said.

By the time lunch rolled around David felt like he really liked Joe Toye. He was a pretty chill guy who didn’t put up with Guarnere’s shit. They walked to lunch together and once they had their trays Guarnere led him over to a table where a bunch of boys were already seated.

“Webster this is Winters, Nixon, Luz, Lipton, Skinny, and Heffron. Everybody, this is Webster. He’s new. He was raised in a totalitarian society, with no knowledge of the carte blanche we’ve been given here in central California. It is up to us to save him of his ways before he becomes one of the mindless bourgeois that are so common in his homeland.” Guarnere said. David was looking at Heffron, whose eyes widened in awe.

“Woah. Where are you from?” He asked.

“New England.” Webster said with a straight face.

“Oh god.” Nixon groaned. “I can practically smell the republicanism from here.”

“Well I’m gay, if that makes it any better.” David added.

“It’s a start.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Webster. Sit down.” Winters said with a warm smile. David took a seat opposite Heffron and Skinny.

“So you’re Edward Heffron?” Webster asked the ginger in front of him as other conversations started to open up around the table. Skinny practically coughed up his food laughing, and Heffron’s face turned a slight red.

“Oh shit, you’ve met Gene, haven’t you?” He asked.

“Huh?” David said.

“Only Gene and the nuns call me Edward. To everyone else it’s Babe.” Babe explained. David laughed.

“So let me get this straight. Everyone calls you Babe, except for your boyfriend?”

Babe nodded,

“Doc doesn’t do nicknames.” Skinny added, “Calls me _Wayne_. “ He said with a grimace.

“Doc?”

            “Doc is what we call Gene. ‘Cause he’s gonna be a medical student. Already in a nursing class and everything.” Lipton explained from next to David.

            “Oh.” David said.

            “What class do you have with Gene?” Babe asked.

            “English.”

            “With Mrs. Grogan?” Nixon jumped in from further down the table.

            “Yeah.” David said. Nixon laughed.

            “Yeah, Harry’s got her. Think’s she’s awfully pretty. Swears he’s gonna marry her someday.”

            “Yeah sure he is.” Winters muttered from next to Nixon.

            “What other classes do you have?” Skinny asked.

            “Umm, Econ block one.”

            “Oh, AP Macro?” Lipton said. David nodded. “Ron’s in that class.” He stated. Luz from the other side of David elbowed him slightly.

            “Ron is Lipton’s hookup. How he managed to land that sociopath is beyond me.” David didn’t exactly know what he meant by that, but he didn’t dwell on it.

            “I’ve got English second block, then Health with Guarnere and Toye third block, and next I have Calc.”

            “AB or BC?” Skinny asked.

            “BC. I took AB last year. Did not do too well in it to be honest.”

            “Oh, with Sobel?” David nodded, “Yeah, Joe’s in that class.” Skinny said.

            “Really?” David looked over at Toye.

            “No, not that Joe. Joe Liebgott, another friend of ours. Yeah, I don’t think he’s that great at it either. But he isn’t that great in most classes. Great singer though. That’s one thing he’s got going for him.”

            “What?” David asked. Luz leaned over.

            “They’ve got a band. Do Fall Out Boy covers mostly. Skinny does drums, Malarkey’s on guitar, Muck’s bass, and Liebgott sings.”

            “Oh wow.” David said.

            “Yeah. Not to brag, but we’re pretty good.” Skinny said, looking around with fake modesty. Babe laughed.

            “They’re alright.” He said.

            “Excuse me, sir. We have gotten paying gigs.” Skinny reproached him.

            “Someone’s paid you?” Luz asked in surprise.

            “Well…” Skinny looked down, “Not exactly. We got free pizza when we played at that joint two weeks ago though.”

            “So they paid you pizza? That’s pretty close to paying you in drugs I think.” Luz laughed.

            “It was good pizza.” Skinny, looking as if he were reminiscing on it, said. He smiled slightly then his eyes focused again. “Better than this shit.” He said, holding up the half eaten piece on his tray.

            “Yeah well anything is better than school food.” Luz said, standing up to throw his own tray out.

            When the bell signaling the end of lunch rang David followed the group of boys out and went back to his health class with Guarnere and Toye. They had another twenty minutes in it until fourth block. Once that bell rang he headed to Calc after getting verbal directions from Toye, who was arguing about it with Guarnere.

            “No, you idiot. Calc room is in C wing.”

            “I’m telling you bro, it’s A wing.”

            “Well you’re fucking wrong!”

            He did find the room though, after asking some girl in the hall who blushed when he talked to her. Even though he got a little lost the classroom was still mostly empty. He walked to the teachers desk and did the usual introduction spiel. The teacher told him to take a seat, he grabbed the one in the back corner.

David’s first thought when he saw Joe Liebgott for the first time was _okay, he’s hot._ His second thought was _he looks angry._ And his third thought was _shit, he’s coming straight for me._

Just before the bell rang the last student walked in. He had a James Dean look going, he was skinny, with a white t-shirt and dark brown hair that David could tell was supposed to be slicked back but over the course of the day was hanging in an unkempt manner on his forehead. He was wearing loose jeans that were tucked into faded brown combat boots. He grimaced when he saw David and walked right over to him.

“That’s my seat.” He said. In all honestly, David would’ve moved, but because it was so late there was only one other seat open, and it was right in the middle of a group of girls who had been looking at him a little too intently for the past five minutes.

“I’m pretty sure this seat is public property.” David said back. Meeting the kid’s dark eyes. The kid shook his head and he looked angrier.

“I sit in that seat everyday. No way is some pretentious-looking motherfucker gonna-.”

“Joe.” The teacher interrupted, “Take a seat.” The kid looked back at the older man,

“I can’t. New kids in my seat.”

“The new kid’s name is David Webster, and find a different seat.” The teacher looked very done, so Joe sighed and went to sit in the empty desk. The girls were definitely disappointed that it wasn’t the cute new boy who was sitting in the chair near them.

“Arctic Monkeys suck by the way.” Joe called over his shoulder. David didn’t reply. Class started and the teacher started spouting information about polynomials and passing out worksheets. David looked down at one and felt the usual unease he did when dealing with math. David didn’t understand what it was. He could read a book and understand all of the subliminal messages, the symbolism, the foreshadowing, the context, but give him math problems and it took him so much effort and time to work them out.

David looked up nervously and glanced around the room. Everyone was working diligently on the paper, except the boy whose seat David had taken. He was leaning over his paper but his eyes were looking to the side, fixed on David. They turned back down when he met them, but David knew the boy had been looking at him.

When the bell rang David debated internally whether or not to stick around the class. On one hand, he should probably talk to the teacher about makeup work, getting caught up so he’s at the same level as people who had been here for the last two weeks. One the other hand, he felt like he had had a long day and really just wanted to get out of the school. The latter won out, he could always ask about the work tomorrow.

In the hallway he saw the boy, Joe, talking with Skinny and realized with a groan that Joe had to be Skinny’s friend, Joe Liebgott. David tried to slip by without being noticed, but he heard a voice calling his name.

“Webster!” He looked and saw Skinny waving him over. He sighed and walked to them. Skinny looked happy to see him, Joe just looked angry.

“Hey, Skinny” Webster greeted him.

“Webster, you met Joe?” Skinny gestured to the boy next to him. David nodded.

“We’ve met.” Joe said, aggravated.

“Webster has lunch with us. He’s great. He’s queer. Just like us!”

David laughed and Joe turned to him sharply.

“What?”

“So Guarnere wasn’t kidding when he said he was surrounded by queers.”

“Oh, Bill’s not as straight as he likes to think he is.” Skinny said, “I’ve seen him when he’s fooling around with Toye and Luz.”

“Yeah, I’ve already heard about the wrestling thing once today.” David smiled.

“You don’t know the half of it.” Skinny sighed, then looked back over at Joe.

“So yeah, this is Liebgott, the singer in my band.”

Joe sighed,

“You told him about the band?” He said with exasperation. Skinny nodded.

“Of course I did. We’re awesome. You should come see us play sometime!” He said to David.

“Yeah, that’d be cool.” David replied, glancing over at Joe who looked as if that was the last thing on Earth he wanted. “Well I should go. My mom’s probably waiting for me.”

“Your mom drives you to school?” Joe asked, smirking in an irritating manner.

“Well yeah, it’s my first day, and we sold my old car before moving here and haven’t had time to buy a new one.” David snapped back.

“Woah, you have your license?” Skinny said.

“Yeah. I turned sixteen in June.”

“Well then shouldn’t you be a junior?”

“Yeah but I was really sick as a kid, so I started school late.”

“Oh. Wow.” Skinny’s eyes widened.

“Well bye then.” Joe said.

“Bye.” David replied, and walked away. He was right about his mom waiting for him. He got in the passenger side and she drove home, asking all the usual stuff about how it went, and do his classes seem okay, and did he make any friends. He answered accordingly and when they got home he helped his father rearrange the furniture in the living room, _again_. His mother was just not happy with it. They ate dinner and remembering Joe’s comment David asked about when they were going to look for a new car for him.

“Next weekend.” His father said around a mouthful of mashed potatoes. After dinner he went up to his room under the pretense of doing homework. In reality he found the box with his stereo system and spent two hours setting up the speakers in various places around his room. He went to bed at ten and felt a little better about the next day, knowing that, besides Calc, he had a friend in each class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk man I just like to picture Skinny as an excited puppy all the time, because he really looks like one. Adorable little motherfucker.


	3. Must Be A West Coast Thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Webster is making new friends. And getting invited to parties. And being utterly confused by Joe Liebgott.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much happens this chapter. But more will next one, I swear. I'm still kind of introducting stuff, and situating Webster into his little life. I'm also unsure how to get rid of the notes i put at the end... so yeah they're still gonna be there even when they don't really apply.

The next day there were more empty seats in Econ due to the fact he’d actually arrived on time, but he still sat in the front, next to Skip. Skip turned to him excitedly when he saw him.

“Dude, I heard you know Skinny!” He said.

“Huh?” David asked, “Oh yeah, I have lunch with him.”

“That’s awesome. I’m in a band with him.”

“You’re in the band too?”

“Yep, me, Skinny, Malark, and Joe.” Skip grinned and leaned back in his chair. He moved to put his feet up on the desk,

“Don’t even think about it, Muck.” The teacher said, Skip put his feet back on the floor.

“Hey so when we do that project, do you wanna be in my group?” Skip asked. David’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion,

“Project?”

“Oh, right, you don’t know. See Mr. Sink has this project that he does for the first quarter of his class, this really big thing. He introduces it about four weeks into the course, but everyone knows he does it because he’s always done it and he’s been working here for like, forever. But yeah so the project,” David picked up pretty fast that Skip is prone to rambling, “it’s an economic forecast. You have to put together a powerpoint and everything. You do it in groups. I think usually three or four to a group. So we can be together, and then we’ll probably have to have Speirs cause no way is any other group gonna wanna deal with his crazy ass.”

“Okay…” David said.

In second block Eugene turned around as soon as David sat down.

“Hey so, I was thinking about something, you said yesterday that you read 1984 in your English class last semester. But if you took English last semester, why are you taking it again here?”

David settled his bag on the back of his chair.

“I’m not sure exactly, it’s just how the classes worked out, I was told that what I got is really all they have space for.”

“So you have to retake a class?” Guarnere asked, overhearing the conversations from his seat a few rows over to the right of Eugene. David nodded. “Wow, that’s bogus, man.”

David shrugged,

“I don’t really mind, I’m good at English, and it counts as another credit, so..”

“Yeah, I guess it’s an easy A then.” Bill laughed.

David sat next to Nixon at lunch, who talked to him about cars, and his thoughts on the upcoming Super Bowl. David didn’t know much about football, but it turns out San Francisco’s team, the 49er’s, were at a pretty good place in the standings and people were excited about them playing in the championship.

“I don’t really know much about sports.” David admitted at one point.

“Yeah, but you lived in Boston, you probably went to loads of Red Sox games, right?” Nixon asked, David shook his head.

“Not really. I think I went to one or two with some friends. But I was more the type to spend time in the museums, or the library.”

“What about the House of Blues?” Lipton said, sitting across from them.

“Now _that,_ I visited frequently.”

When David walked into Health, his seat from yesterday was already taken, by a smirking Liebgott.

“Did you run here early so you could get that seat?” David asked, Joe’s smile dropped. David sunk into the desk next to Joe and when he looked over Joe was busy digging around something in his bag. Maybe Joe’s behavior had nothing to do with him, maybe he had a bad day yesterday, or maybe that’s just the way he is. David turned later in the class and saw Joe concentrating on the worksheet in front of him, chewing aggressively on the end of a pen.

“You know that can mess up your teeth.” David said, smiling. Joe looked up at him, and his eyes widened slightly.

“Shut up.” He said harshly, pen falling out of his mouth and hitting the floor. “Shit.” He mumbled, ducking down to grab it. David turned back forward and decided maybe he wouldn’t try to talk to Liebgott anymore.

The rest of the week passed by pretty uneventfully for David. The boys he sat with at lunch let him into their group of friends with open arms. He met the fourth member of Skinny’s band, Malarkey, and got along with him instantly when finding out that he was an avid listener of David’s favorite radio show, Welcome To Night Vale. He invited Nixon to come with him to look for a new car over the weekend, and the invitation was graciously accepted.

He met Lipton’s boyfriend, Ron Speirs, when Mr. Sink finally brought up the project they would be doing. He explained it all to them, then told them to pick a group. Skip looked to David, who nodded, then he glanced to the back of the room. A boy with neatly combed brown hair, come up to the front and sat in the desk behind David that had been filled but vacated when the girl went to the back corner to form a group with her friends.

“Hi, I’m Ron, you’re David, Carwood’s told me about you.” And David wasn’t sure why but something about the boy’s smile made him shiver a little. He had this weird gleam in his eye and for a moment David completely understood why he had been called a sociopath. He seemed like someone who could easily be a sociopath.

But besides that, he was a good group member. He had ideas on how to do their forecast and suggested they meet up outside of school to work on it. David offered his house because he basically had his own floor and he knew his mother would want to see that he was making friends.

At lunch that day Luz said he and his friend Perconte were having a Super Bowl party that Sunday. Everyone was invited. He gave Webster his address and told him,

“You’re gonna love my house, man. I have a trampoline.”

“It’s winter.”

“Yeah, but it’s a _trampoline._ ”

David did not try to talk to Joe again. He pretended he didn’t hear girls talking about him in the hallway,

“That cute new guy-.”

“Yeah I have a class with him.”

“He’s in my lunch.”

Sometimes Joe was in the seat when David got there. Sometimes he wasn’t, but David didn’t sit there even if it was empty.

Friday night he was lounging on his bed, skyping Leckie for the first time since the last Saturday.

“And Snafu and Sledge finally admitted their undying love for each other.”

“What?” David looked up from his phone at his friend on the computer screen. “Are you kidding me? I’ve been gone a freaking week, they couldn’t have come to the conclusion everyone else has been at for years a little earlier?”

“Sorry David.” Leckie shrugged.

“That’s another thing.” David said, going back into the discussion they’d had earlier about his new friends, “None of them call me David, except Speirs but he’s also insane soo… no, they all call me Webster.”

“Must be a west coast thing.”

            “Yeah…” It was quiet for a moment. “Dammit.” David muttered, staring at his phone.

“What?” Leckie asked.

“Oh nothing,” David glanced up, “just Babe is kicking my ass in Trivia Crack. I don’t know what it is, that fucking ginger just knows everything.”

Leckie laughed,

“Well at least everyone’s nice there.”

“Yeah…” David looked off beyond the computer.

“What is it?” Leckie said. David shrugged.

“Just this one kid in my Calc class. He’s a friend of everyone else’s, but he isn’t in our lunch. But well, he’s kind of a dick. But it’s just me.” David sat up a little more, leaning against the wall his bed was pressed against. “Like I heard him in the hall the other day talking to Skip, and he was completely happy and friendly to him. But as soon as he saw me, his eyes widened and he went rigid and he was just immediately, ‘I have to get to class.’ I don’t know what it is. It can’t be because I stole his seat that _one_ time.”

“I don’t know.” Leckie shrugged, “Sounds like the kid’s got a problem.”

“He really does.” David nodded, thinking about the loud, obnoxious, way Joe had laughed with his head thrown back at something Skip had said.

“Just stay away from people like that.” Leckie advised him. “You don’t need that kind of negativity in your life.”

David thought about the small “o” Joe’s mouth had formed when the pen dropped out of it.

“True that.”


	4. I Can Explain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting a new car and Super Bowl parties. Also Web has a little problem with some iced tea, resulting in sexual tension.

The next morning David woke up early to his cell phone ringing. Groaning, he reached over and pulled it off the small table near his head. He held it to his ear.

“Yeah?” His voice was groggy and out of it.

“Yo, I’m coming by now to get you.” Nixon greeted him.

“What? What time is it?”

“Almost nine.”

“Why are you coming to get me at almost nine on a Saturday morning? I’m pretty sure the San Fran dealerships will all still be there at noon.”

“Ah but Webster, my Bostonian friend, we are not going to a San Fran dealership.”

Webster sat up and started rubbing at his eyes.

            “We’re not?”

            “Nope, my northeastern comrade, we are going to a Santa Monica dealership.”

            “Isn’t Santa Monica, like, five hours away.”

            “Four if you drive fast.”

            _“Dammit, Nix, you just missed the turn.”_ A muffled voice on the other line said.

            “You were supposed to tell me when to turn!” Nixon replied.

            _“I did! You were too busy being vague to Webster!”_

            “Well then you should’ve jerked the wheel!” Nixon sighed, then said to Webster, “We’ll be there in five. Because of Lt Directions over here I need to turn around.”

            “Alright.” Webster said, “You might have to wait for me.”

            “Did I wake you up?” Nixon laughed. “Were you getting your beauty sleep?”

            “Shut up.” David said, and hung up the phone. He got dressed and brushed his teeth and Nixon’s car was already outside. He yelled goodbye to his parents, then was out the door. He hopped into the backseat when he saw Winters in the passenger side.

            “Hey Webster, sorry about that.” Winters said, turning in the seat to look at him.

            “It’s alright.” Webster replied, “So why exactly are we going to Santa Monica?” He looked over at Nixon, who was occupied backing out of David’s driveway.

            “Nix knows a dealer down there, apparently he can get you some amazing deal.” Winters explained.

            “Yeah, so what’s your budget?” Nixon asked once they were on the road. Webster pulled out the wad of cash his father had given him the afternoon before when he told him he was going with a friend to get a car the next day. Webster flipped through it.

            “$8,000.”

            “Holy shit. That much for a teenager’s car?”

            “We have a lot of money.” Webster shrugged. Winters turned on the radio and they found a station they all liked and turned the volume up once they got on the highway. Nixon rolled down the windows and they belted out the lyrics. Webster felt good. He hadn’t known these people long, but he already felt great friendships forming with all of them. He hadn’t had that many friends in Boston, so this large group he found himself a part of now was a godsend.

            Nixon was right about driving fast. They got to Santa Monica around one and Nixon pulled into a large Ford dealership. He parked, jumped out, and ran into the building, leaving Winters and Webster to get out of the car themselves and walk over. When they went inside Nixon was already talking to some guy near the entrance.

            “Dick! David!” He called them over once he saw them. “I would like you to meet my dear friend, Johnny Martin. Johnny,” He turned to the man, “David here is looking to buy one of your select cars.” He clapped David on the back. Johnny smiled.

            “Is that so? Well what are you looking for?” And this was why David had asked Nixon to come, because if there was one thing he’d learned after a week of sitting with the guy at lunch, it was that he knew a lot about cars, and David did not know anything about cars.

            “He’s gonna want something with a good amount of space.” Nixon said.

            “I will?” Webster asked, turning to him. Nixon nodded.

            “Oh yeah, you and me buddy, we’re gonna be the only two with cars. You know what that means? Rides. That’s what we’re going to be. No one wants to take the bus trust me. You’re going to Luz’s party tomorrow, right?”

            “Yeah…”

            “I will bet you ten dollars that tomorrow at least two people ask you to give them rides to school in the morning, now that you have a vehicle. And when one of them gets into trouble with the law? They’re not gonna call their parents to bail them out, they’re gonna call their lovely, rich friend with a car.”

            “Does that happen often?” Webster asked, worried. Nixon shrugged,

            “It’s been known to happen on occasion. But so yeah, space is important. Space and an interior that won’t be too difficult to clean.” Webster didn’t really need to know about that one. So Johnny walked them around the dealership, showing them different cars with different features. Webster paid attention, but since he didn’t really understand much of it he just let Nixon take the wheel.

They were there for almost an hour when Nixon discovered and fell in love with the Crown Victoria.

“It’s got a bench seat! We could be like the gang in That 70’s Show! And have you seen all this trunk space! You could fit a body in there!”

“Nix, no.” Dick said urgently at that last comment. All it took was Nixon to get hooked on one car though, and then an hour later all the proper paperwork was signed, money changed hands, and Webster was driving out of the dealership in his new (to him) Ford Crown Victoria. It was red and drove like a dream. Winters offered to drive back to San Francisco with him, and let Nixon go alone, but Webster assured him it was fine. He’d just follow them back.

He thought a lot about what Nixon said in the dealership, about how because he now had a car he was probably going to be a designated driver. Someone expected to be places because they were the only one who could drive people around. Most guys might feel burdened by this duty, but it made Webster feel great because it made him feel needed. As much as he hated to admit, he was worried about fitting in with people here. He barely fit in back in Boston and that was someplace he’d lived all his life. It seemed though that he had found that perfect group of friends who welcomed him with open arms. All except one…

As he flew down the highway in his empty car, Webster mulled over Joe Liebgott, and why he seemed to dislike him.

 

He was going to owe Nixon ten dollars. The next day at eleven David got a call from Skip, asking him if he could give him and Malarkey a ride to Luz’s party, and maybe to school on monday.

_“Why don’t you just ask if he can give you rides from now on? Why just one day?”_ Webster heard Malarkey ask in the background. There was a rustling noise as he assumed a hand was shoved over the receiver.

“ _Because I don’t want to be a bother.”_

_“Oh please, you’re gonna be a bother anyway.”_

David said it was no problem, he said he could give them both rides for the rest of the year if they really needed them.

“Thanks, you’re the best, man.” Skip said.

They loved the car, both of them shoving into the front seat. David arrived at Luz’s house around noon and the first thing he did was walk over to where Nixon was standing around the kitchen island with Winters and Lipton, and slap the ten down in front of him. Nixon looked confused at first, but then he just laughed.

“I told you, didn’t I?”

“Come on, man, let me show you the house.” Luz said, grabbing Webster’s arm and tugging him away. “I’m not really going to show you the house.” Luz said as they got out of earshot. “Why would you want to see my house? It’s boring, just bedrooms and bathrooms and shit, everyone has them, they’re all the same.”

“My bedroom is it’s own floor, technically.” Webster pointed out. Luz stopped for a moment,

“No shit. That’s cool.” Then he continued leading Webster down a hall and out into his backyard. The yard was pretty big, fenced in, with limited view to the yards around it. The aforementioned trampoline was in the center of the grass, and was currently occupied by Guarnere, Babe, Skinny, and Toye. Eugene, Ron and Joe were sitting at a picnic table pushed against the house, watching the boys jump. There was another darker boy Webster didn’t know standing next to the trampoline. Skip and Malarkey, who had gone around the side to get into the yard when Webster had gone in the front door, were walking over them.

“Everyone, Webster’s here!” Luz announced. Everyone looked over. David caught Joe’s eye as he looked up from the wooden table and they stared at each other for a second before looking away.

“Hey, man.” Guarnere greeting him.

“Webster, meet my longtime pal, Frank Perconte.” Luz flung his hand out to the boy who was now walking over.

“Nice to finally meet you, Webster.” Frank held out his hand, which Webster took and shook.

“So why did you tell me you were giving me a tour of your house if you were actually bringing me outside?” Webster asked Luz.

“Because, poor, oblivious David, We can’t have Nixon and Winters knowing that everyone is outside. They think only Guarnere, Toye, and Liebgott are outside. They think Eugene and Babe are in the basement, they think Skinny and Ron are in the TV room. If they knew everyone was outside, then they would come outside.”

“And we don’t want them to come outside because?....”

“Because then we wouldn’t be able to talk about them, silly!” Skinny yelled over.

“Lipton is keeping them occupied, taking one for the team.” Ron said. “While these losers discuss something that isn’t their business.”

“Oh please, you want to know if they’re banging just as much as we do.” Skip said, sitting down next to Joe.

“You think they’re hooking up?” David asked, his eyes widening. Everyone nodded, even Joe.

“Yep, we’ve even got a pool going. You want in?” Toye said. David looked around at everyone, smiled, and nodded. He reached into his pocket.

“I’ve got thirty dollars.” He said, pulling out the cash. Luz grinned and rubbed his hands together.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about, man.”

The game didn’t start until four, so they all stayed outside. Eventually the back door opened and Lipton came out, with Nixon and Winters behind him. Guarnere and Toye hopped off the trampoline and Webster and Eugene took their spots.

“This is great!” David yelled to Skinny, laughing as he jumped.

“I know, right? We do this every year.”

“Where are Luz’s parents?”

“They watch the game at his uncle’s house.”

“Oh.”

“Dude, you know what I heard he had in his oven?”

“What?”

“Mini hot dogs. Wanna see if they’re done?” Skinny asked with a smirk. David shrugged,

“Sure, why not?” They both got off the trampoline and headed inside. It wasn’t cold outside, but it was a little chilly, so David shivered when he stepped inside, acclimating to the heat. They walked into the kitchen and Skinny pulled open the oven door.

“Ah, yes.” He smiled, “Toasty little pigs in a blanket.” He pulled out the tray with his hand wrapped around a towel. “We should probably grab a plate to put them on and bring them outside.”

“Alright.” David said.

“Oh and can you grab the iced tea out of the fridge? We should probably bring that out too.”

“Okay.”

While Skinny opened cabinets to find a plate David opened the fridge. On the bottom shelf was a pitcher with brown liquid in it. He grabbed it but when he turned to shut the door Skinny was right there reaching into a cabinet and David quickly stepped backwards, knocking the pitcher against himself. The liquid splashed up and got all over his shirt.

“Oh shit.” Skinny said, taking the pitcher from Webster and setting it down on the island. “I am so sorry.”

“It’s cool, it’s not your fault.” Webster said.

“Here, you take that off, I’m gonna go tell Luz what happened and see if he can lend you a shirt.”

“Alright.”

Skinny took off down the hall, leaving David alone in the kitchen. After a few moments he heard the backdoor open again and footsteps going up the stairs. When he heard them coming back down he grabbed the hem of his t-shirt between his fingers and brought his arms up, tugging the cotton over his head. When he had the shirt off he looked over at the figure, expecting to see Skinny or Luz holding a new shirt. Instead he saw Liebgott, looking very uncomfortable. His eyes were wide, his body frozen, Webster watched his throat move as he swallowed. He was staring at Webster’s bare chest.

“Ummmm, I came in to get a drink?” Joe phrased it as a question, he sounded like he was being choked. The fact was not lost on Webster that this was the first thing Joe had said to him without an aggressive tone. So all it took to get Joe to be nice to him was for him to be half-naked, interesting.

“Oh.” Webster looked at the pitcher of iced tea in front of him. “Here.” He said handing it to Joe. Joe took it but his eyes still didn’t leave Webster.

“I swear there is a reason I’m shirtless in Luz’s kitchen. I’m not crazy.” He said. Joe just nodded slowly.

“I might be.” He muttered.

“What?” Webster asked.

“Nothing.” He said quickly. It was silent for a moment, just Webster standing shirtless by the fridge and Joe holding a pitcher of tea. Just then Luz came into the room, holding a fresh shirt.

“Hey Skinny said you got iced tea on your shirt?” Webster broke his gaze away from Joe’s face and nodded at Luz. “You can wear this one.” He tossed the shirt at Webster, who caught it and quickly put it on. Joe looked like he could breath again.

“Thanks man.”

“No problem, now come on, let’s get those hot dogs outside, they smell amazing.” Luz grabbed the plate and walked to the door. Joe started at Webster for a moment more, then shook his head a little bit, and quickly followed him, carrying the pitcher. Webster brought his wet shirt out to his car, then walked around the side to meet them.

“Jesus, Webster. Heard you’re making messes already.” Toye said to him when he stepped into the backyard. David laughed,

“The only thing that got messed up was me.”

When the game started everyone crowded into Luz’s basement, where a large HDTV was set up with surround sound, and a big L shaped plush couch right in front of it.

Ron sat on the portion stretching out towards the TV, with Lipton in front of him, leaning against him. Webster sat on the couch in between Malarkey and Luz. Guarnere and Toye were squeezing in at the end after Luz. Skip, Skinny, and Liebgott were sitting below the couch, leaning back against the other boys’ legs. Eugene and Babe were cuddled up at the foot of the L, Ron and Lipton’s feet near their heads. Perconte had dragged over a beanbag chair and was trapped in that, and Nixon and Winters were squished on the loveseat, practically on top of each other.

Webster learned pretty fast that he wasn’t the only person in the room with no real knowledge of sports. About ten minutes into the game Babe and Eugene took it upon themselves to yell abstract things at the screen.

“Come on, _come on_. Go for the fiver! Retreat! You can do it! Sports!”

“Babe, just because you don’t like football you don’t need to do that every year.” Skip sighed.

“What are you talking about? I love football. When they throw the ball? Classic.” Babe said seriously, causing Webster to burst out laughing. After that he joined in with the two of them, and after a little bit more time they had Guarnere and Nixon doing it as well.

“Run! Run!”

“They’re going to catch you and kill you!”

“I don’t think that’s how the game works.”

“Of course it is, kill the carrier right?”

“YOU HAVE TO SPIN WHEN YOU GET TO THAT LINE, THAT’S WHAT IT MEANS, THAT IS THE SPINNING LINE!”

“GOOOOOOOAAAAAAAL.”

“Do the little canoe dance!”

“Throw it! Throw it! Punt it at their faces!”

Everyone was crying laughing and the only time they got quiet was at the commercials, which were far to golden to miss out on. By the time halftime came around, they were all tired from yelling. That, however, did not stop Malarkey and Skip from getting up and dancing during the halftime show. They tried to get others to join them but nobody would bite.

Webster was watching the TV screen, but he felt the couch next to him move and when he looked over he saw Joe had taken Malarkey’s seat. Their legs were pressed together but Liebgott was facing straight ahead, he was shaking a little, as if his neck were strained. Webster didn’t say anything to him, just looked at him for a moment, then turned back to the TV himself. When the game started up again and the team they were rooting for scored, Webster pretended he didn’t feel Joe’s warm breath against his face when he leaned back to yell.

The game ended late and everyone was tired. Skip had actually fallen asleep with his head on Malark’s shoulder and Lipton looked pretty close to getting there as well. Ron nudged him gently to keep him awake.

“Well I’d love to let you guys stay, but we all have school tomorrow.” Luz said, stretching as he stood up.

“Yeah and we don’t have to take the school bus anymore.” Skip grinned at Malarkey. Everyone except, Nixon, Winters, Ron, and Lipton groaned in jealousy. The last three had gotten rides from Nixon since he’d gotten his license.

“Well, I can fit three more people, four if we squish.” Webster said honestly.

“Call it!” Babe yelled.

“I’d take a ride, if it’s not too much trouble.” Eugene said.

“Count me in.” Skinny said. Webster turned and looked at Joe.

“Do you want a ride, Joe?” He asked. Joe just huffed and only looked at Webster from the corner of his eye.

“I like the bus.” He said gruffly. Webster sighed and stood up. He looked at Malarkey and Skip, who were both staring at Joe weirdly. So Webster was right, that wasn’t Joe’s normal behavior. He tried not to dwell on it.

“You guys need a ride home right?” He asked. They nodded and left, saying goodbye to everyone, and thanks to Luz.


	5. That Boy's Just Like A Broken Water Tap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joe discovers something about Webster. Webster discovers something about Joe. These chapter summaries are always pretty vague.

The next day when Webster walked to Calculus he saw Luz and Joe talking a little bit down the hall from the door. He didn’t know what they were saying, they were too far for him to hear, but it didn’t seem like just a regular conversation. Luz was using aggravated hand motions and Liebgott was looking at the floor. Webster looked forward when Luz turned his head and he walked into class before he was seen.

He sank down into his seat next to the one Joe always took. He glanced up and saw the normal group of girls looking back at him. One waved and he smiled at her, she blushed and turned back to her friends.

“You shouldn’t lead them on like that.” He heard a voice say behind him. He turned and saw Joe dropping his bag next to his desk.

“What are you talking about? Lead who on?” He asked, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

“Those girls. You shouldn’t lead them on, you’re gay, its not fair.”

“I _literally_ just smiled at them.” Webster said. Joe shrugged.

“Yeah but smiling isn’t just smiling for you. The way you look, it’s practically dirty.”

Webster didn’t know whether he should take that as a compliment or not. What he really wanted to do was make some comment about how, wow, Joe was actually talking to him today, but he didn’t want to push his luck. So instead he asked,

“Did you do the homework over the weekend?”

Joe nodded at him,

“You?”

“Yeah. Took me about two hours. Don’t do well in math.” For some reason that made Joe look happier.

“Why don’t you get a tutor or something?” He asked. Webster shook his head vigorously.

“The only thing worse than being bad at math is having my parents know I’m bad at math.”

“Well they’re going to know you suck when you bring home a D.”

“I won’t. I’ll… do something.”

“Well that’s dumb as fuck.” Joe said angrily. Webster turned to him.

“What?”

“You’re fucking shit at math, and you won’t get yourself help because you don’t want your parents to find out?”

“I’m not gonna fail. I’ll figure it out.” Webster said, defensively.

“You know Sobel doesn’t do retakes right?” Liebgott said.

“I know! I said, I’ll figure it out. Why do you care so much?” That stopped Joe.

“I don’t care.” He said. “I just think its fucking stupid.”

“Well whatever. It’s my business. I’ll figure it out.”

“Go ahead. I don’t care.” Joe said, agitated. He looked to the front of the classroom and didn’t talk to Webster for the rest of the class.

That signaled what Webster looked back on as the end of the Silent Period and the beginning of the Fighting Period. Joe talked to him now, but it was basically just to argue. He found something to be angry about in pretty much everything Webster did.

“What’s up with Ivy League over here?” He asked, walking into class one day and sitting down next to Webster. Webster looked down at his Harvard sweatshirt.

“What’s wrong with this?” He said.

“Nothing, except you didn’t fucking go to Harvard.”

“My father taught at Harvard.”

“Whoop-de-doo for him. Is that why you want to go there, cause Daddy taught there?”

“Who said I wanted to go there?”

“Don’t you?”

“Well yeah, but-.”

Joe just laughed,

“Yeah I thought so.”

There was more than one occasion on which Joe got angry at Webster because he thought he was leading some girl on.

“All I did was ask her if she knew what pages the work is on.”

“Yeah but coming from you? All she heard was ‘what time should I come over to have hot, dirty sex?”

“It seems unlikely she got _that_ out of that.”

            Webster tried not to let the things Joe said get to him but sometimes it was hard not to. Sometimes he dished out as good as he got.

            “You’re just some trashy, angry, homo in some shit band that doesn’t even get any gigs!”

            “Well at least I’m not a fucking pretentious New Englander who thinks he’s better than everyone else!”

            “I do not think I’m better than everyone else!”

            When hanging out with everyone else they all ignored the fact that all Webster and Liebgott did was fight. They were so good at it Webster wondered if they even noticed.

            “Hey, we’ve actually got a gig next weekend at some joint up north. You want to come? You’re the only one who’s never seen us play.” Skinny said across the table to Webster one day during lunch. Webster nodded.

            “Yeah, sure, I’d love to.” Except he did not love to see Liebgott get angry when he saw Webster was there.

            “Awesome. I’ll text you the time and place later.”

            “Alright.”

            “You have to meet our manager, Buck. He’s the best.”

            “You have a manager?”

            “Yeah, all bands have managers. Buck is an upperclassman, the same age as Winters and Nixon, but he doesn’t go here. He goes to a private school south of San Fran.”

            “Oh, alright.”

            “Hey does anyone know the year of the first Summer Olympic Games?” Winters asked from farther down the table.

            “1896.” Babe said without hesitation.

            “Why are you so good at trivia!?” Luz yelled, drawing attention.

            “See Babe was born in Rome, at the place where three roads meet.” Guarnere said, chewing thoughtfully on his pizza. “Because of that he was gifted with an unparalleled skill in the art of trivia.”

            “I thought he was born in Philly.” Skinny asked.

            “I was born in Philly. Guarnere is being funny because the place where three roads meet in Ancient Rome is called a trivia.” Babe explained.

            “Oh. Well how were we supposed to have known that?”

            “If you were the trivia god you would’ve known.” Guarnere said.

            In Calc class later that day Sobel passed back their first major exam that they had taken a few weeks prior. Webster’s heartbeat quickened and his hands felt clammy. His paper was put on his desk facedown, which was never a good sign. With bated breath he flipped it over… and his heart sunk in his chest. His eyes widened and he fought to keep his breathing under control.

            “What did you get?” Joe asked, trying to lean over to get a glimpse of Webster’s paper.

            “A 69.” He said, his voice low. His chest felt tight, as if someone were squeezing his rib cage tighter.

            “Oh shit. I got an 80. See I told you-.” Joe was mostly likely about to make some comment concerning how he’d _told Webster he should’ve got a tutor instead of trying to handle it on his own_ but then he realized something was wrong. Webster’s hands were wrapped around the sides of his desk, his knuckles were white. His eyes were wide and bloodshot and staring at the paper. His breathing was coming out in short, shallow gasps.

            “Are you alright?” Joe asked, Webster showed no sign he even heard him. The rest of the class was loud, complaining or bragging about their grade to their friends. “Webster?” Joe asked, reaching our to gently shake his shoulder. His breath was coming out so fast it could really only be called hyperventilating. “Oh shit.” Joe said again. He didn’t know how he knew, because he’d never witnessed one before, but Webster was having a panic attack. He stood up really quickly.

            “Mr. Sobel can I take Webster to the nurse? He told me he feels like he’s going to throw up.” Sobel looked over at the boy who did, in fact, look like he was close to throwing up. Sobel was known for his mean, well douchebag-ish, nature, but he also did not want a student vomiting in his class, so he nodded and said,

            “Go.”

            Joe grabbed Webster’s arm and dragged him out of the room. He took the unresponsive boy and brought him a little bit further down the hall, before stopping and leaning him against the lockers. Webster crumbled to the floor and sat, staring straight forward, breathing rapidly.

            “Webster.” Joe said, shaking him. Webster didn’t respond. “Web, Web.” He put his hands on both his shoulders and tilted his face to they were eye to eye.

            “Web, look at me. You need to calm down. It is not the end of the world. You got a bad grade, so what? Get a fucking tutor, you can bring it up before finals.”

            “No, you don’t understand.” Webster said, breaking out of his state, but still gasping in breaths. He sounded like he was crying but his eyes were dry. “My parents, if I come home with a D? They’ll-.” He didn’t finish the sentence.

            “Then you’ll bring it up. You can get help.”

            “This was 50% of our quarter final. And Sobel doesn’t do retakes.”

            “Dammit.” Joe said, shaking his head. He looked back at Webster. “Fine, I’ll get you a retake.”

            “What?” Webster’s breathing slowed and he looked in Joe’s eyes.

            “I said, I’ll get you a retake.”

            “How are you gonna do that?”

            Joe ran a hand through his hair, sighing.

            “I’ll talk to Sobel. I can be very good at getting what I want.” He said, smiling. Webster’s breathing had returned to normal so Joe stood him back up, taking his hands off his shoulders. Webster pretended he hadn’t liked the warmth.

            “So are you okay?” Joe asked, eyes masked with irritance, but hiding concern.

            “I’m alright.” Webster said, still kind of shaky.

            “What the hell was that?”

            “I don’t know. Sometimes when I’m really anxious or panicky about something I feel like I can’t breathe.”

            “How often does that happen?”

            “It’s only happened a couple dozen of times. I’m usually alone.”

            “So what do you do?”

            “Just… wait for it to pass I guess. One time when I was younger I was sitting on my bed and I passed out because of it.”

            “Damn.” Joe said, looking at Webster as if he might pass out right then. He turned to the door back to the class. “You can probably tell Sobel you threw up and are being sent home, if you wanted to leave early.”

            “I don’t really think I’m in any position to be missing Calc.”

            “True.” They walked to the door, Joe had his hand on it when he heard Webster ask behind him,

            “Did you call me Web?” Joe thought about it and remembered that he had.

            “I guess so.” He said. Webster made a face.

            “Yeah… don’t do that.”

            Once the class ended Joe told Webster to wait outside the door, then he went over to talk to Sobel. Webster had no idea what he said but when he came back out he told Webster,

            “Stay after next Tuesday, and he’ll let you retake it. The highest you can bring it up to is an A-, but I figure that’s better than what you have now.” And just walked past Webster down the hallway.

            “Whoa, whoa.” Webster chased after him, “How did you do that?” Joe just shrugged. “Well thanks, I guess.” Webster stopped and watched Joe disappear into the crowd of students. He wondered why Joe was like one of those broken shower taps, arctic cold or heated like the Sahara, no comfortable middle-ground.


	6. She Wants To Teach Me Math, Not Have Sex With Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Webster joins the basketball team. And fights with Joe. And wants a job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stuff happens this chapter, but trust me, more stuff happens next chapter. Better stuff. The good stuff. Finally.

            The next day was Wednesday, which meant basketball tryouts. Webster did not know why he was trying out for the basketball team. He did not know sports. All he knew was somehow Malarkey had convinced him to tryout with him. He remembered the arguments Malarkey had brought in, trying to sway him.

            “It’ll be fun.”

            “Go-karting is fun. I don’t have to stay after school for two hours everyday and physically exert myself to do that.”

            “It’ll get you lots of chicks.”

            “I’m gay.”

            “It’ll get you lots of dudes?”

            “Gay guys don’t go to basketball games.”

            “I’m your friend and I’m asking you to do this with me.”

            “We’re not _that_ close.”

            “It’ll look great on a college application.”

            And that was the one that ended with him running back and forth in a heated gym, surrounded by twelve other sweaty boys, at two o’clock on a Wednesday afternoon. He wasn’t that familiar with the rules of basketball, so he kept having to be told,

            “You can’t stop dribbling and then start again!” or

            “You can’t stand there for more than three seconds.” or the most common one,

            “You cannot keep trying to trip people!”

            Believe it or not, Webster was actually really fast, and a lot of the shots he took went in. So when the tryouts were over the coach threw a jersey at him and told him he made JV, first string. Whatever that meant. Malarkey also made first string, but he had been playing basketball since he could run and had been on the freshman team last year.

            To Malarkey making the team meant pride, and girls, and having fun playing a sport he loved. To Webster it meant leaving the gym every day with his hair slicked with sweat, his cheeks flushed red, and his leg muscles aching in his basketball shorts.

            When Webster exited the gym he headed straight to the bubbler to refill his water bottle. Malarkey was waiting inside for him so they could leave.

            “David?” He spun around and saw a girl he recognized from his Calc class. He thought her name was Reaghan, or something like that.

            “Hey, um, what are you doing here?” He asked, half-smiling.

            “I had Select Chorus.”

            “Oh.” He said, pretending he knew what that was.

            “So I heard you didn’t do to well on the Calc exam we got back.” She said. David just laughed sadly,

            “No, no I did not do too well.”

            “Well, you know, I got an A, so I could tutor you… if you want.” Webster thought about what Joe had said. Yes he was getting a retake, but it wouldn’t mean much if he still didn’t know the material. And no matter how much he studied, he just couldn’t get it on his own. The numbers went in his head, and left without leaving any imprint.

            “Yeah, actually, that would be great.” He said, smile growing wider. The girl, Reaghan? Rachel? smiled as well, she seemed relieved.

            “Awesome, we can do it here at the school, if you want. I have Select Chorus everyday, but I guess you have basketball so we can do it after.”

            “Well I’d rather not have to stay in the school for eleven hours straight, so how about we do it back at my place? I have a car, so we can drive there together.”

            “Alright.” She said, nodding eagerly. “Start tomorrow?”

            “Tomorrow.” He agreed, smiling. She blushed a little bit.

            “Renee!” A girl called out from further down the hallway, “My mom’s here, come on!” The girl, Renee, said a quick bye to Webster, then took off to meet her friend. Webster stood alone in the hall for a moment.

            “You have got to be kidding me.” This time it was a voice he recognized.

            “Joe?” he turned and saw Joe standing in the doorway to a classroom. “What are you even doing here?”

            “I had to stay after in Computer Science to finish something. But that’s not important. What’s important is that you _still_ don’t realize that what you’re doing is wrong.”

            “What? Jesus.” David sighed, “I don’t have time for this again.” He turned to walk back into the gym but Joe yelled at his turned back.

            “How could you not see that? She wants to tutor you, bullshit. She was practically propositioning you right there! And you made it seem like she had a chance. All, ‘we can do it at my place’ but you’re not interested in her, Webster! It’s not fair to her!”

            Webster whirled around, not able to resist the temptation it was to fight with Joe Liebgott.

“She wants to teach me math! Not have sex with me.”

Joe groaned,

“Oh you’re so fucking stupid, how can you not see it?”

“I am not stupid.” David said, his blood boiling with rage.

“Really?! Because who was the one who got a fucking D on a test and then freaked the fuck out? It wasn’t me! It wasn’t her! It was you! All because you wouldn’t listen to me! And then I bailed your ass out and you still won’t listen to me! So don’t tell me you’re not a fucking idiot, because that isn’t something a smart person would do.”

Webster was done. He was done with listening to Joe scream at him.

“You know what? Fuck you, Joe.” And he turned and walked back into the gym. He thanked whatever god there was that all he heard was silence behind him.

The next two days passed by in a sort of blur. He mentioned to Eugene that he was going to get tutored in Calc, and when he told him who by the Cajun all but gushed.

“Renee is amazing. She’s in my nursing class, and she is the best.”

“Yeah, apparently she’s good at Calculus too.” David said.

“Of course she is, she’s probably good at everything she does.”

“Careful Doc, if I wasn’t sure you were gay, I’d probably have to tell your boyfriend that you’ve got a little crush on the girl.” Guarnere laughed, “However, I have seen you engaging in sinful acts in the dark of a movie theater, so I can testify that you are very queer.”

“Thank you, Bill. It’s good to know you are assured in my homosexuality.”

Skinny texted him Friday night the time and place their band was playing. Webster promised he’d be there. He didn’t talk to Joe in Calculus, but he felt him staring angrily at him and it made the side of his face burn.

He did talk to Renee, who told him she knew a lot of ways to help him understand the formulas he currently wasn’t getting. When they met Thursday night she stayed over for an hour and a half and they sat on the floor of his attic room and he took out the exam and she showed him point by point what he did wrong on the questions that were incorrect.

Despite what Joe said she did not try to push him down and have hot, dirty, sex with him on the floor.

On Saturday Webster woke up early. He had the band’s show to go to, they were playing at seven, but Skinny told him they’d all be there at six, so he should go then as well. That meant that he had an entire day to kill. He was loitering around in their living room, hanging halfway off the couch and participating in a group chat orchestrated by Lip. Apparently Ron had fallen asleep in the pile of stuffed animals that Lipton’s little sister kept in their basement. The pictures he had sent them had some intense responses.

“OH MY GOD I FEEL LIKE ITS CHRISTMAS.” Skip replied.

“I think I’m going to post this on every social networking site there is. I’m going to dig up my Myspace password because of this goddamn photo.” Eugene texted.

“PLEASE PRINT A HUNDRED COPIES OF THIS AND PUT THEM ALL OVER SCHOOL. ALSO GIVE ME ONE I WANT TO FRAME IT.” Luz added.

“Thanks Lip, I was fucking driving when I opened this. I almost crashed because I was laughing too hard. Thanks a lot.” Nixon said.

“I hope you all realize Sparky’s gonna kill every single one of you for having viewed this photo. Lip’s the only one who’s safe.” Webster responded. At around noon his mother walked into the room and asked him why he was lying on the floor.

“I don’t know. I’m bored. I don’t have anything to do until six.”

“Well why don’t you go meet Nancy?” Nancy was the daughter of the couple his mom had met the first day here. His parents were now pretty close with them, they went over there a lot for dinner, and they came over here too. They had never met Webster thought because he went out most nights with his friends. His mother was always going on about how he should really go over there to meet them and,

“Meet their beautiful daughter, Nancy.” She for some reason thought Webster was going to meet Nancy and fall in love instantly. Webster was 100% certain that wouldn’t happen. She didn’t have enough dick for him.

“Umm, yeah, sure. I’ll go do that.” Webster grabbed his wallet out of a drawer in the kitchen island and took off out the door. He had absolutely no interest in meeting Nancy, or her wine-sipping, flower-planting parents. So instead he got in his car and drove to Luz’s house. When he rang the doorbell Luz’s mom answered.

“David, sweetie! Hi, George is just downstairs.” Webster had met Mrs. Luz for the first time a couple weeks prior, when he, Guarnere and Toye had come to beg Luz to let them borrow his Big Wheel. He hadn’t been home so she brought it out from the shed for them. They told her Guarnere’s little cousin wanted to use it, but in reality they attached a rope to the back of Webster’s car, tied it to the handlebars, and took turns riding the big wheel while they drove down suburban streets.

“Thanks, Mrs. Luz.” Webster said, slipping in the open door and heading straight to the stairs. He found Luz sunk into a beanbag chair, yelling at the game of Dead Space he was playing.

“Necro-Babies, please. Necro-Babies stop! Leave me alone! Hey Webster.” He said, glancing up at David quickly before looking back at the game.

“Hey, do you want to go to the mall with me? I want to find a job.”

“What do you need a job for?” Luz asked, staring at the screen, mashing buttons frantically as he shot plasma beams at Necromorphs.

“Money is usually the reason.”

“Yeah but you have money. Your parents always give you money when you ask.”

“True… but I had a job in Boston, I want one.”

“Alright, alright. Just wait till I get to the next save station.” David sat down on the couch and watched Luz fight his way through an infested spaceship. Finally he got to save, and then shut off the Xbox.

“Okay, Webster, let’s join the job hunt.” They drove to the mall and walked around for a while. Mostly they goofed around in different stores, but they did ask various places if they were hiring, or knew anyplace that was. Only a few places were handing out applications but Webster collected one from all of them. It was almost four when they drove back and Webster dropped Luz off. He went back home and told his mom he didn’t end up seeing Nancy because Luz called and needed his help with something.

Webster went up into his room and logged onto the Google chat group he had going with Ron and Skip. They had their Econ project due in one week and had been working on it a little bit every day. They had gotten together outside of school a few times already, but found it was easier to work together when they could all be at their own homes, and work on their part on their own time. That’s what the online chat was for. Webster worked on it for close to an hour, then got ready to go to the pizza place the band was playing.


	7. Every Last Time I Come Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Webster goes to the bands show. Stuff happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so notes... all song lyrics are from legit Fall Out Boy songs. This chapter is on the longer side because I didn't know how to split it. And there isn't really porn but there is some almost porn I guess. But other than that...here! Here is the moment I hope you have all been waiting for!

When he walked in the first thing he noticed was that it smelled like beer. The sign outside read “Lindberg’s Pizza.” So why was there a bar? The second thing he noticed was the small stage with the drumset set up on it. The third thing he noticed was Joe Liebgott standing at the bar, laughing at something the man on the other side of it was saying.

“Webster! Yo, man!” Webster looked to the voice calling his name and saw Malarkey seated at a table with Skip and another boy he’d never met. He had pale blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Webster walked over.

“Hey guys. Skinny told me to check you out today.”

“Yeah, you totally should.” Skip said. “Webster, this is our manager, Buck Compton. Buck, this is David Webster.” They shook hands. Malarkey moved over so Webster could have a seat in the booth as well.

“So, I never did ask. What is your band’s name?”

“Band of Brothers.”

“Oh… why? You’re not brothers.”

“We’re brothers in soul.” Skip laughed.

“Webster!” Skinny ran over from the back room he had just come out of. “Man, I’m glad you made it. I was just messing with the instruments.”

“Woah, you did not touch my guitar.” Malarkey said, seriously.

“It might’ve fallen over.” Skinny shrugged with false innocence.

“Dammit, Sisk.” Malarkey nudged Webster who stood up to let Malarkey out of the booth. He immediately dashed off the where the instruments were.

“Don’t you think you should all go make sure your instruments are okay? You have to play in, like,” Buck looked down at his phone, “fifteen minutes.”

“Sure thing, Buck.” Skip said, getting up and following Malarkey.

“Its great to see you, Webster. I hope you enjoy the show.” Skinny said, walking off to climb up onto the stage and sit at the drums. Touching them to make sure they were set up properly.

“So you’re a new kid at their school?” Buck asked, turning his attention to Webster.

“Yeah, I moved here near the middle of January.”

“That’s gotta suck, halfway through the school year.”

“I thought it was going to too. But I made friends fast, and they’re all like the best friends I’ve ever had. And it’s only been two months.”

“Yeah, I’ve only met all of them a few times, at, like, shows, and sometimes social gatherings. They’re very close knit, don’t you think?” Buck asked. Webster nodded,

“Definitely. Not many social boundaries. One time I woke up and Babe was sitting at the end of my bed. Said my mom let him in and he didn’t want to wake-.”

“Hey!” They heard an aggravated yell and both turned to the stage. Everyone was set up and Joe was standing at the microphone. He was looking straight at Webster. Joe must’ve realized that his yell was amplified across the place because he blushed a little, then stepped back and turned to Skinny. Webster could see his mouth move and his arms waving angrily.

“What the hell are they fighting about?” Buck asked.

Webster sighed,

“That would probably be me.” He said honestly. “Joe doesn’t like me too much. Although I have no idea why.” Buck looked at him for a moment, then smirked.

“Oh. Of course he does.” Webster didn’t get to ask what the hell he meant by that because at that moment a guitar strummed and Liebgott’s voice came over the speaker again, this time intentionally.

“Alright, we’re Band of Brothers. And we’re gonna play for you.” And then they immediately went into the first song.

“ _Last year’s wishes,_

_are this year’s apologies._

_Every last time I come home.”_

Webster had to admit that Joe’s voice was pretty good. They were all pretty good. Joe sang through five songs and tried really hard to look everywhere but Webster’s table.

“ _I’m a stitch away, from making it._

_And a scar away, from falling apart._

_Blood cells pixelate, and eyes dilate._

_And the full moon pills got me out_

_on the street, at night.”_

The more Liebgott pointedly avoided Webster the angrier Webster got. Did he really hate him so much he couldn’t even look at him? What the fuck was his deal? He’d hated Webster right from the beginning and Webster wasn’t even sure what he’d _done._

“ _I’m here to collect your hearts._

_It’s the only reason that I sing._

_I don’t believe in what you say,_

_but I can’t stop listening.”_

Once the show was over people clapped and Webster walked over to the stage.

“So, Webster, what’d you think?” Skinny asked, excited about his friend’s opinion.

“You were actually good.” Webster said.

“Wow, try not to sound fucking surprised, thanks.” Joe muttered. Webster turned to him, al his anger from the show ready to burst.

“Hey, can I talk to you?” He asked, pointedly looking to the back door. Joe shrugged and turned around, Webster followed him out of the place. They stopped in the dirty back alley that the door opened out into. Joe walked a little bit away from Webster and pulled something out of his pocket. When Webster heard the click he knew what it was.

“You smoke?” He asked, the answer obvious since Joe currently had the cigarette in his mouth. He drew it out between two fingers and Webster watched him blow the smoke slowly out of his mouth.

“Yeah. Why? You gonna tell me it’s bad? Gonna preach to me the benefits of a healthy, fit, lifestyle?” Joe mocked.

“No, no. I wasn’t gonna-.”

“Gonna remind me that you’re too good for me?” Joe continued.

“What?”

“Nothing, College Boy, don’t worry about it.”

Webster winced at the nickname. Joe had started calling him College Boy ever since he saw Webster wearing the Harvard sweatshirt.

“Jesus Christ, Joe, why do you hate me so much?” Webster asked. He saw Joe’s fingers tense around the Lucky Strike. “And don’t try to fucking deny it, because it’s obvious you do! What the hell did I ever do to you? Was it because I stole your damn seat my first day? Well I’m fucking sorry but this is ridiculous.”

“It’s not something you did!” Joe said, his voice starting to rise. “You didn’t _do_ anything! It’s just you! It’s just- everything about you aggravates me.”

“Yeah, I can tell.” Webster spat. Joe shook his head.

“No, you don’t get it. I can’t stand _everything_ about you. The way you talk, and laugh, the way you leave your mouth open all the time, the way your eyes are so blue it’s unfair. The way your hair looked after that goddamn basketball practice.” Joe groaned, and Webster stopped, trying to see where he was going with this.

“The way you spew shit about some stupid book you read, and your face lights up as if it’s the goddamn Holy Grail. And you’re so fucking stubborn, I told you to get a tutor, I _told you._ And you wouldn’t listen to me and then you had a goddamn meltdown and I get to find out that every time you have one you have to deal with it on your own. Like that’s not fair, what am I supposed to do with that information? And you flirt with the girls all the time, and you don’t even know you’re doing it! You’re just-“ His eyes widened. “Just everything about you kills me. Everything. I can’t handle every-.”

He was cut off by Webster’s mouth covering his own. He was shocked rigid at first, but then he melted. Dropping the cigarette, he brought his hands up into Webster’s hair and pulled their faces closer. Webster wrapped one arm around his back so their chests were pressed together. With the other hand he pushed up Joe’s t-shirt and ran his fingers across his chest. Their coolness caused Joe to gasp, his open mouth an opportunity for Webster’s tongue to slip inside.

It was heated and Webster felt like his heart was doing double time. He stepped backwards, tugging Joe with him, until they were pressed against the wall.

“We can’t date.” Joe said, pulling back, gasping. “I dislike you too much.”

“I agree.” Webster nodded, bringing his hand up to cup Joe’s face and pull it back in for another kiss. Joe tugged slightly on Webster’s hair and Webster moaned, arching his head back so it was against the bricks. The white of his throat was exposed and Joe couldn’t resist putting his mouth down and sucking on the soft skin there. He moved down and nipped at Webster’s collarbone. He moved his hands down to Webster’s waist.

“Jesus, Joe.” Webster breathed. Taking his hand out from under Joe’s shirt and bringing it up to tangle in Joe’s hair, to pull Joe’s mouth back up to meet his. Webster ran his tongue around the inside of Joe’s mouth. Joe tasted like cigarettes and soda.

“Holy shit.” A third party voiced. Joe detached his face from Webster’s and pulled back to turn his head without talking his hands off of Webster. Skinny was standing in the doorway to the pizza shop. He looked shocked at first, but then his face lit up an air raid on France. “Yes, finally!” He said. “Toye’s gonna owe me twenty bucks.”

The two panting boys looked at each other. Joe’s mouth was cherry red, bruised from kissing, and Webster’s pupils were dilated. They let go of each other, then turned back to Skinny.

“Whoa, whoa. You guys bet on whether Joe and I would get together?” Webster asked.

“Well some of us bet different things. Some bet that you would just have a one night stand, some of us bet you would date. So which one is it? Are you guys dating?”

Joe and Webster exchanged a look. Webster could still taste the Lucky Strike from Joe’s mouth.

“Yep.” “Yeah.” They said at the same time.

“Awesome.” Skinny grinned, “That means Toye _and_ Luz owe me twenty bucks.”

“Good for you. Now can you go? We were kinda busy here.” Joe said, trying to wave Skinny off.

“Well I came out here for a reason. Malarkey was looking for you, Webster, something about a job.” Skinny explained. “Go back to groping each other if you want.” He turned around and walked back inside.

“Thank you.” Joe said after him. He turned back to David, smirking.

“They bet on us.” He said mockingly, Webster groaned.

“Oh shut up.” He said, wrapping his hand around the back of Joe’s neck and pulling him close.

“Yes sir.” Joe laughed, planting a kiss on Webster’s nose, then a longer one on his mouth.

Twenty minutes later when they walked back into the pizza place, slightly disheveled and breathing heavily, not quite able to keep their hands off each other, Skip starting clapping when they walked in.

“Well, look who finally got their shit together.” He said. “We wondered when it was gonna happen, all that fighting, there was enough sexual tension between you two to set a house on fire, or at least to….make a house bang another house.”

“Thanks, Skip, for that poetic analogy.” Webster said.

“Luz and Nixon thought you were banging already, but I’m like ‘no way man. No way are two men that angry if they’re getting some.”

“Alright, then.” Joe said.

“And I was right, man. Look how much sucking each other’s faces has mellowed you two out!”

“Yeah, by the way Webster. Maybe you should have a story prepared for when you get home.” Buck said.

“What? Why?” Webster asked, Buck shrugged.

“Because your parents will probably want to know where you got that hickey on your collarbone.”

Webster’s hand instantly went up to cover the circle of red skin on his clavicle. He looked over at Joe and glared without any real seriousness, and Joe just shrugged with fake innocence.

“Hey, by the way Webster, Luz texted me saying you were looking for a job?” Malarkey asked. Webster looked over at him and nodded. “Well I know, they’re hiring here. Bartender told me before the show. They need someone to wait tables.”

“Oh yeah, that’d be great.” Webster said enthusiastically, “Do you think you could get me an application?”

“Aw, man. I’ll do one better than that.” Joe jumped in. He spun around and walked into one of the back rooms. He returned a minute later with a smile on his face. “I got you an interview.” He said. “Tomorrow at eleven.”

            Webster grinned,

            “That’s great, man, I don’t know how to thank you.”

Joe tilted his head a little and looked at Webster thoughtfully,

            “I know a few ways you could thank me.” Webster felt his skin begin to blush.

            “Alright!” Malarkey yelled, “Let’s keep this PG!”

            They sat down and ordered a pizza, because the band never got a chance to eat before the show. Skinny, Malarkey, and Buck were on one side of the booth, Buck, Webster, and Joe were on the other. And if Joe’s hand remained on Webster’s thigh for majority of the meal, sending a warmth up into his core, well, nobody had to know.

            The next day posed a bit of a problem for Webster. He had left the resteraunt yesterday by planting a obnoxious, sloppy kiss on Joe’s mouth, followed by a more elaborate real one. He laughed into Joe’s mouth when he heard Skinny yell,

            “Me next!” from behind him. Joe waved his hand behind Webster’s back, warning Skinny off.

            The reason Sunday was problematic for Webster was this, who was going to make the next move? Was Joe going to text him? Or should he text Joe? He didn’t have Joe’s number but it would be easy enough to get it. Were they serious about dating now? What if Joe had been joking? All these questions haunted his mind as he drove to the pizza place around ten-thirty for his interview.

            The answer to all those questions was taken from him when he walked in and saw Joe standing at the bar again, talking to the bartender. He had a passing sense of deja-vu.

            “What are you doing here?” He asked, walking over to him. Joe spun around a huge grin spread across his face. Webtser was absolutely certain that if he had responded that way the first time they met, instead of with a grimace, Webster would have started kissing him right then and there.

            “I left my jacket here last night.” He said, leaning in to peck Webster’s mouth with his own. “You going to your interview?” Webster nodded. “Then I’ll wait for you.”

            “Okay.” Webster smiled. He talked to the bartender, who told him the owner was waiting for him in the back room. He turned to look at Joe one more time, and then went in. When he came out twenty minutes later Joe was sitting at a table, playing a game on his phone. He turned it off though when Webster slid in across from him.

            “How’d it go?” Joe asked.

            “I think okay. He just asked me if I had any past experience, and my own way to get to work, and stuff like that. I think he liked me. He said he’d call me by the end of the week if I got the job.” Webster said.

            “Awesome.”

            They were silent for a moment. Then Joe said,

            “So, what are you doing for the rest of the day?”

            Webster shrugged,

            “Nothing, I don’t think.”

            “Do you want to do something?” Joe asked, not looking at Webster’s face, trying to act not nervous.

            “Like what?” Webster asked.

            “I don’t know… see a movie?”

            “We could go get lunch.”

            “Alright.” Joe said, the grin back. They were walking out when Webster remembered,

            “Hey, where’s your jacket?”

            “Oh.” Joe said, “I never brought a jacket last night.” Then he smirked and walked out the door, leaving Webster standing still for a moment. He chuckled to himself and followed the other boy out.

            They went to a Quiznos, ordered sandwiches and sat down opposite each other to eat them. They were there for over two hours, just talking. Webster learned all the things about Joe that he never had before because they were too busy bickering with each other to acknowledge their mutual attraction.

            Joe loves comic books. He’s got stacks and stacks of them in his room. He’s the oldest of six children, the other five substantially younger than him. He was born in New York, but his family moved here when he was four. He can cook like nobody’s business. Having a single mother who worked late most nights, he had to make dinner for his siblings more often than not.

            Webster had left his phone in his car, and when they went back out to it he had seventeen new texts. His phone had been blowing up since the night before, because it didn’t take long for Skinny, Skip, and Malarkey to spread the word like wildfire that Joe and Webster had “got it on in the alley behind the pizza place.”

            “Luz just texted me saying, ‘Webster what does Joe’s dick looks like’, ‘Webster do you call him LIEB’ and ‘Webster are you not answering because you’re too busy sucking Joe off.”

            Joe laughed,

            “I like the thought of that last one.” He smirked. Webster looked around,

            “I’m not sucking your dick in a Quizno’s parking lot. I have a little more class than that.”

            “Alright. Then let’s go.”

            “Go where?” Webster asked, starting the car. Joe moved into the middle of the bench seat and put his hand on Webster’s crotch. The car jerked forward and almost hit a post.

            “Jesus, Joe.” Webster said. Joe just laughed again.

            “To your house, come on. You need to be able to answer question one.”

 

            “We’re working on Calculus homework!” Webster yelled down to his mom as him and Joe raced up the stairs to his room. He turned around immediately to pull the stairs back up. He then went over to his stereo to put on some music. The instant he turned around his face was attacked by Joe’s face. Joe’s mouth was on his mouth, a mess of teeth and tongue and lips being bitten and mouths being groaned into.

            “Calculus my ass.” Joe said. He put his hands on either side of Webster’s head and brought their bodies closer. He grinded their hips together and Webster moaned.

            “Come on.” He said, bringing his hands down and tugging Webster by the belt loops to his bed. When he felt the edge of the mattress hit the back of his thighs he sat down on it, leaning back on his elbows. He looked up at Webster, standing between his legs.

            “Take your shirt off.” Joe said, Webster happily obliged. “Fuck. You have no idea how hard I was seeing you shirtless at Luz’s party. I honestly thought I’d died and gone to heaven.”

            Webster grinned, then pushed Joe back so he was fully lying on the bed. He crawled over him, bracing himself with his arms on either side of Joe’s head. He brought his face down and bit gently, tugging at Joe’s bottom lip with his teeth. Joe was struggling with Webster’s belt so Webster reached down and undid it himself.

            “And after your basketball practice.” Joe continued once Webster had removed his mouth from Joe’s and was now placing kisses down his neck. He brought his hands up under Joe’s shirt and Joe moved his arms so Webster could pull the fabric over his head and throw it across the room. “When you were-ah fuck, Web-.” Webster had placed his mouth right below Joe’s right nipple and was tonguing the spot eagerly. “you were all sweaty and flushed, and-.”

            Webster brought his head back up so it was level with Joe’s.

            “Lieb, do you want to talk about that time you saw me all sweaty and flushed, or do you want to make me all sweaty and flushed?” He asked.

            “Definitely the second one.” Joe said, flipping Webster over and moving to tug down his jeans. He paused,

            “Hey, you called me Lieb. Did you know-.”

            “Yeah I know.” Webster said.

            “You speak German?”

            “Yep.”

            About a half an hour later they were both lying, spent, and sticky, in that post-orgasm bliss. They were naked and under Webster’s covers, legs tangled together, Liebgott’s head on Webster’s shoulder, Webster’s arm slung across Liebgott’s waist. Webster tilted his head down to gently kiss Joe’s forehead, the hair, plastered there by sweat, tickled his nose.

            They both tensed when they heard Webster’s parents moving around on the second floor.

            “We should probably get cleaned up.” Joe said, sitting up.

            “Yeah.” Webster seconded, although he really didn’t want to. They pushed back the curtains and Webster leaned over to dig around in his drawer to find some a towel or something to wipe them off. Once they were dressed again they sat at the end of Webster’s bed.

            “So are we really going to date now?” Webster asked. Joe tilted his head and looked at him.

            “Do you want to?”

            Webster didn’t hesitate.

            “Well, yeah.”

            Joe smiled.

            “Then yeah.”


	8. Skinny Called It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First day back to school after Joe and Webster get together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Porn. Oh god I wrote porn. It's not a lot. in fact its really little. if you people actually want more porn, please tell me because i feel like the porn in this story is going to be minimum unless advised otherwise, just because im an awkward little girl.

 

            The next day when Webster went to pick up Skip he told him to get in the back seat.

            “Why? We going to pick up your boyfriend too?” Skip asked teasingly.

            “Yeah, actually.” Webster replied. The next stop was Babe’s, who he said a similar thing to.

            “Oh wow, so that wasn’t actually a joke. You and Liebgott are hooking up. Damn Skinny is good at calling that kind of stuff. He called me and Gene, before _we_ even knew.”

            Malarkey knew what was going on before he even got in the car,

            “Are we all sitting in the back because the front middle is reserved for Joe?” He asked as he opened the door. Joe’s house was next and he slid into the front seat with ease.

            “Hey bitches.” He said, looking in over the seat at the boys in the back. “Hey, Web.” He said, smiling at the boy in the front.

            “Whoa, I thought we weren’t allowed to call you Web?” Babe yelled.

            “You cannot call me Web.” Webster pointed over his shoulder at Babe, Skip and Malarkey. “He can call me Web, because he had his mouth on my dick yesterday. If you want to put your mouth on my dick you’re allowed to call me whatever you like.”

            Joe laughed, then went serious and turned around,

            “None of you are allowed to put your mouths on his dick.” He said.

            When they picked up Eugene he went into the backseat. It was a struggle as he scrambled over Malarkey to be in the middle, and moved Babe so he was partially on his lap, that was the only way they could fit four. The only comment Eugene made on the matter was,

            “Skinny called it.”

            Finally they picked up Skinny. Who rushed into the car as if he were being chased. He slammed the front door shut and turned to look at both Joe and Webster.

            “So how’s the honeymoon going?” He asked with a sly smile.

            “Shut the fuck up.” Joe said while Webster just chuckled. When they got to school everyone piled out and went into the cafeteria, where they usually hang out before class starts. Luz was sitting at their usual table, with a big sign that said,

            “Reserved for the gays.”

            “I’ll have you know.” Malarkey said when he sat down, “That not all of us are gay.”

            “That’s true.” Skinny added, “Guarnere swears he straight.”

            “I meant me!” Malarkey yelled.

            “Didn’t you blow Skip last year?” Joe side-eyed him.

            “That was merely an experimental blow! All of my friends are homosexuals, I wanted to know what the hype was.”

            Skip laughed,

            “And I was more than happy to be his test doll.”

            “So what was the consensus then?” Babe asked.

            “Hmm… I’d say 50/50.”

            “So you’re bisexual?” Eugene asked. Malarkey shrugged.

            “Call me whatever you want. I just know the penis was nice, but so are boobs.”

            “Dude.” Skip said, punching Malarkey’s shoulder. “Come on, we bisexuals need more representation. We’ve got the token heteros with Guarnere, Toye, oh and Luz here.”

            “Thank you.” Luz said.

            “And all these goddamn queers.”

            “Thank you.” Babe said.

            “And then I come in as the lone bi. Help me out buddy.”

            “Alright, alright. I’m bisexual.” Malarkey said. “Happy now.” Skip smiled.

            “Immensely.”

            Nixon, Winters, Speirs, and Lip arrived a few minutes later. They dragged chairs over to the table and plopped down.

            “So we heard the news.” Nixon said. “But is it true?” He widened his eyes and looked around the table, stopping his gaze on Webster and Liebgott, who were sitting next to each other. Skinny fake gasped.

            “Do you think I would give out false information? Especially about something as important as two of our friends engaging in sexual acts?”

            “I’m just saying maybe you were hallucinating. It wouldn’t be the first time.” Nix shrugged.

            “For the last time,” Skinny pointed and accusatory finger, “I thought they were regular mushrooms!”

            “Sure you did, sure you did.”

            “But so it is true?” Winters added, still looking at Webster and Joe. Joe just raised his eyebrows and smirked.

            “It has to be.” Ron said, “It’s the first time they’ve been in the same room and haven’t been fighting. There’s no way sex wasn’t involved.”

            “I told you guys! I saw it. Joe’s tongue was down Webster’s throat, Webster had his hands on Joe’s ass. I wish I could unsee it, but alas it’s still there.” Skinny said, tipping his chair back onto its hind legs.

            “Don’t you know you’re supposed to knock before exiting a building and entering a back alley.” Webster said, Joe laughed.

            “That is not a thing.” Skinny shook his head. Webster just shrugged indifferently. When Guarnere and Toye came in the first thing they said was,

            “Close your eyes.” It was directed at Webster and Joe, who did as told. When they opened them there was a poorly made cake in front of them that was iced to read,

            “Congrats on the sex.” Everybody laughed.

            “Yeah don’t actually eat that though.” Guarnere said, “Idiot put like five cups of salt in it. Thought it was sugar.”

            “It’s not my fault your containers are poorly labeled!” Toye defended himself.

            “Well it’s the thought that counts.” Joe said, taking a picture of the cake before Guarnere grabbed it and dumped it in the trash. Just then the bell rang, signaling five minutes until class started.

            “We should probably go.” Lipton said.

            “Of course, Mama Lip.” Babe said. Lipton accepted the nickname, as it was accurate. He was the group’s den mother, trying to stop them from doing stupid, dangerous things, trying to make sure they stayed out of trouble.

            “Does that make Ron, Papa Speirs?” Eugene asked.

            “I suggest none of you say that in front of him.” Lip said, glancing to the side at his boyfriend who was talking to Winters and Nix.

            “Yeah not unless you want to die.” Malarkey added.

 

            When Webster got home from school, late, after basketball practice, he walked into his room to find Joe sitting at his desk.

            “How the hell did you get up here?” Webster asked, not angry just surprised.

            “Your window was open.” Joe said, jerking his head toward the still open window. “You have a lot of books.” He continued, looking at the bookshelf.

            “I know.” Webster said, walking over to the window to look out. “My room’s on the third floor.” He said, confused.

            “Yeah but you’ve got that tree.” Joe said, running his finger along the spines of the books on the shelves. “Who’s your favorite author?”

            “Palahniuk.” Webster said without thinking. “So, you mean to tell me, you climbed that tree, and jumped from it onto my ledge?”

            “Yep. Isn’t he the guy that wrote Fight Club?” Joe tugged a book out of its slot and turned it to look at the cover. “Jaws. There was a book for Jaws?”

            “Yeah. The book was first.”

            “Obviously. When does the book ever come second?”

            “True.”

            Joe reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.

            “Don’t smoke those in here.” Webster said.

            “I wasn’t going to.” Joe replied, “I was going to sit out on the ledge.”

            “Oh.”

            Joe got up from the chair and leaned down to step through the open space of the window. He stopped and looked back at Webster.

            “Are you coming or what?”

            Five minutes later Webster was seated on the ledge outside. His back was pressed against the side of the house and one of his legs was dangling over the edge. Joe was leaning against him, holding a Lucky Strike in one hand, putting it to his lips and sucking in every thirty seconds. The air was chilly and they were quiet but it felt nice. Webster wrapped one arm around Joe’s shoulders, keeping their bodies together.

            “What’s your favorite book ever?” Joe asked after one long pull. Webster thought about it.

            “The Book Thief.”

            “Not Palahniuk?”

            “Nah. He’s my favorite author overall. But the Book Thief is just amazing.”

            “Never read it.” Joe said honestly.

            “You need to.”

            “Do you have it?”

            “Yeah.”

            “Okay.”

            When Joe finished the cigarette he dropped the butt into Webster’s back yard and they climbed back inside.

            “I really should go.” Joe said, groaning as he pulled his arms over his head, stretching in the middle of Webster’s bedroom. Webster stared at the stretch of skin that was visible when Joe’s shirt rode up and licked his lips. “No, I _really_ should go.” Joe said again, as Webster stepping forward to press his lips to Joe’s. “My siblings, they-.” He was interrupted by Webster licking into his mouth, “they get hungry around five.” He huffed in between breaths. “And my mom-she… doesn’t get home-“ Joe tried to speak around the kisses Webster kept pressing to his mouth. Webster’s hand was around the back of his neck, keeping their faces close. “until six.”

            Webster pulled back, only for a moment.

            “We can be fast.” He said, running his fingers along the inside of the waist of Joe’s jeans. Joe felt a tingling in the skin there after Webster’s hand moved along. He swallowed.

            “Web.” He said, his voice sounding coarse as Webster got down on his knees and started slowly undoing the button on Joe’s pants. Webster stopped and looked up at him through his eyelashes. Joe swore that in that moment he had never seen a person so beautiful.

            “You don’t really have to go _right_ now.” He said, his voice low, and causing Joe’s body to fill with arousal. A meteor would have to be flying towards them right now for Joe to say yes, he really did have to leave, and even then he wasn’t sure he would. He shook his head aggressively no. Webster smiled and Joe could’ve come right then. Webster looked back down at what his fingers were doing.

            Joe had very limited experience with being given a blowjob, but he had to say Webster was the best at it. When Webster finally got his hand around Joe’s cock it was fully hard and when he pulled it out and immediately put his lips around it Joe groaned with pleasure. He got his fingers tangled up in Webster’s hair and tried not to pull too hard but it was difficult not to when Web was sucking him off so _slow_.

            “Ah fuck.” He bit his lip, hard enough to draw blood. He felt Webster’s tongue swirl around the head and couldn’t help thrusting his hips forward. Webster just looked up at him again and smiled, with his mouth still around Joe’s dick. “Jesus, Web, you are going to kill me. You are seriously going to kill me.”

Webster chuckled, pulling his mouth off as if he knew Joe was close. He jerked Joe off the rest of the way and Joe’s breath hitched when he emptied himself all over Webster’s hand. Webster got up and grabbed the towel to wipe himself off. Then he went back to Joe and kissed him gently, running a hand through his hair that was damp with sweat.

“You should probably go.” He whispered. Joe’s eyes were still glazed from his climax and he nodded slowly.

“Yeah… yeah.” He said.

“Do you need a ride back?” Webster asked.

“No,” Joe shook his head. “I think I need to walk.”


	9. Oh, He's A Working Class Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joe sits in on a studying session. The boys react to Webster getting a job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song sung in this chapter is Working Class Man by James Barnes and might have been inspired to how one of my friends reacted when he found out I had gotten my first job. Also this chapter isn't too long because I didn't want to split up the night out that is happening next chapter.

The next few days passed. Luz’s morning sign was changed to read,

“Reserved for the gays, (closeted and otherwise)” and Skip huffed when he saw it,

“Still not getting any representation.”

Webster retook his Calc exam and when he got it back on Wednesday he sighed with relief when it was a B-, still not ideal, but better than last time. Renee smiled at him and said,

“Good job!” Joe kissed him on the face and said,

“Great job.”

That Thursday Joe was waiting by Webster’s car when he got out of basketball practice. Renee was walking with him, and looked confused when she saw Joe.

“What’s he doing here?” She asked. Webster sighed.

“He had to stay after to talk to a teacher.” He said. Whether that story was legit or not, he didn’t know. He had talked about it to Joe earlier though.

“Joe this is ridiculous.” He had said.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” Joe had replied.

“I’m talking about how you’re only staying after so you can come back to my house and watch Renee tutor me.”

“I am doing no such thing. I’m staying after because I have to talk to one of my teachers about something. If I so happen to end up at your house during your little study session, well it’s your fault for letting me into your car.”

“I’m not so sure I should let you in to the car.” Webster said as he approached the vehicle with Renee.

“Haha, you’re funny.” Joe fake laughed. Webster got into the front seat and Joe quickly slid in to the middle next to him, leaving Renee to take the end. They drove to Webster’s house and Joe climbed up the ladder first and walked across the room to flop onto Webster’s bed. He turned around so he was lying on his stomach, face near Webster’s pillow. It was a clear sign of familiarity. He was trying to show Renee, _I’ve laid on this bed before. I have a claim to this space, you do not._ It was so ridiculous Webster wanted to laugh.

           “You can do your little learning thing.” Joe said as he pulled out his phone. “I’m just gonna play on my phone.”

            “Alright have fun with that.” Webster said back, sitting on the floor with Renee. She taught him about differentials and after her mom came to pick her up Webster made a point of dropping on the bed next to Joe and saying,

            “Geez, I’m sorry. That must’ve been awkward for you.” Joe looked over at him, confused.

            “What are you talking about.”

            “Well, I mean, all that sexual tension between me and Renee. I had trouble keeping it in my pants. The way she talked about math. Hot damn.”

            “Very funny, College Boy.” Joe rolled his eyes and shoved against Webster’s chest.

            “But alas, Renee is not interested in me. So I guess I’ll just have to makeout with you.” He said, wrapping his arms around Joe. Joe pushed him back,

            “Keep talking like that, and you’ll be making out with the wall.”

            “Aww Lieb, I’m sorry.” Webster said jokingly, pulling him tighter so their bodies were lying pressed together. His lips were centimeters from Joe’s ear when he said, “In reality, I had a hard time keeping my brain on math because all I could think about was you on my bed.” Joe smiled at this.

            “Well, tutor session’s over now. And I’m still in your bed.”

            “That is very true.” Webster said.

 

            It was on Friday that Webster got a call from Lindberg’s Pizza. He had gotten the job. It was amazing how much more excited for him his friends were than he was for himself. His phone vibrated minutes after the manager had told him he’d be waiting tables, and it was Luz. He hesitantly put the phone to his ear.

            “Yeah?” He answered. Luz’s shouting/singing voice answered him.

            “WORKING HARD TO MAKE A LIVING, BRINGING SHELTER FROM THE RAIN.”

            “Luz, please.” Webster sighed, holding the phone away from his ear so as not to cause permanent hearing damage. It did however bring attention to the fact that there was someone singing James Barnes on the other line. Other people in his first block class started to look over at him. Luckily, Mr. Sink was basically deaf and took no notice.

            “A FATHER’S SON, LEFT TO CARRY ON, BLUE DENIM IN HIS VEIN.”

            “Luz, I get it. I’m in class. Don’t do this.”

            “OHHHHH, HE’S A WORKING CLASS MAN.”

            “Okay, I’m hanging up now.” Webster said, ending the call. Skip just laughed and Ron said honestly,

            “He’s just glad you’ll have more money so you can pay for things.”

            But it must’ve been something more than one person was in on because not even thirty minutes later his phone buzzed again and it was Malarkey.

            “Yeah?” He answered.

            “WELL HE’S A STEEL TOWN DISCIPLE. HE’S A LEGEND OF HIS KIND.”

            “Jesus, not you too. I just got a job. I’m gonna make minimum wage. Give me a break.”

            “HE’S RUNNING LIKE A CYCLONE ACROSS THE WILD MIDWESTERN SKY.”

            “We live in California!” Webster shouted into the phone.

            “OHHHHH, HE’S A WORKING CLASS MAN.” Webster ended the call with him as well, but sure enough, twenty minutes later he got another call, this one from Babe.

            “I don’t want to even answer it.” Webster said. Skip laughed,

            “Come on, you have too. You don’t know he’s gonna sing. It could be important.”

            Webster sighed and brought the phone up.

            “Yeah?” He answered.

            “HE BELIEVES IN GOD AND ELVIS.”

            “GODDAMMIT.” Webster yelled, hanging up immediately. Skip burst out laughing and even Ron cracked a smile.

            “You know they aren’t gonna stop.” He said.

            “Yeah, yeah. Laugh now. Just tell me when you’re set to sing your part and I’ll make sure to drop my phone in the toilet before then.”

            The next call didn’t come until halfway into second block. But when he felt the phone vibrate he put it to his ear without even looking, he knew what it was going to be.

            “HE GETS OUT WHILE HE CAN.” Nix’s voice resonated over the line. Webster sighed and let him get out a few lines before hanging up.

            “HE DID HIS TIME AT VIETNAM, STILL MAD AT UNCLE SAM. HE’S A SIMPLE MAN WITH A HEART OF GOLD IN A COMPLICATED LAND. OHHHH HE’S A WORKING CLASS MAN.”

            The next person to call was Perconte, and it was about fifteen minutes after Nixon.

            “WELL HE LOVES A LITTLE LIEBGOTT, WHO SOMEDAY HE’LL MAKE HIS WIFE.”

            “Oh great, Joe’s gonna love that.” Webster said. Perco ignored him like all the others had and kept singing.

            “SAVING ALL THE OVERTIME, FOR THE ONE LOVE OF HIS LIFE. HE AIN’T WORRIED ABOUT TOMORROW, CUZ HE JUST MADE UP HIS MIND. LIFE’S TOO SHORT FOR BURNING BRIDGES. TAKE IT ONE DAY AT A TIME. OHHHH HE’S A WORKING CLASS MAN.”

            “How did you guys coordinate this?” Webster asked, before hanging up. Joe called next, and Webster was actually tempted to leave him on for awhile, just to hear him sing, but he was in Health class and didn’t need Guarnere and Toye getting on him.

            “YES, HE IS, HE’S A WORKING CLASS MAN.” Joe sang. “I’M TELLING YOU HE’S A WORKING CLASS MAN.”

            “That was elaborate.” Webster said.

            “Yeah, well, you’re the first with a job. I’m sure it will be done to everybody.” Joe explained.

            “Oh, I can’t wait.” Webster grinned.

 

            That day at lunch they decided to do something later to celebrate Webster’s getting a job.

            “Well where should we go?” Webster asked when Nixon brought it up at lunch. Over the past month and a half his friends had taken it upon themselves to bring him around to all the tourist sites, and all their personal favorite places to visit. He’d seen Alcatraz, the Walt Disney Museum, Babe had explained to him how if you wanted to kill yourself by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge, you’d better do it soon because they’re constructing a suicide net underneath the bridge to catch jumpers. He’d been to the cable car museum, the Exploratorium, Skinny and Skip had shown up at his house early one morning and had taken him to Twin Peaks to watch the sunrise.

            Nixon thought about it for a moment, then Guarnere jumped in.

            “Oh, the Fisherman’s Wharf! We could take him to the Musee Mecanique!” He yelled. Webster turned to Lipton,

            “What’s that?”

            “It’s basically like an arcade.” He explained, “But it’s got all these really old games and, like, entertainment machines. Some of them are kind of creepy… but it’s always fun. You just need a shit ton of quarters.”

            “Yeah but it closes at eight.” Babe pointed out.

            “Ohhh, we can take him to the 7D theater after!” Skinny said.

            “7D? I don’t think that many D’s have been invented yet.” Webster said.

            “Its just like a 3D theater, but the seats move and there’s stuff that sprays at you and other stuff… it’s really cool though. They play these intense little movies with zombies and monsters and sometimes you get guns and you get to shoot stuff.” Skinny ranted.

            “Not real guns obviously.” Lipton said.

            “Skinny is a little bit in love with the 7D theater.” Toye leaned over and told him. Webster nodded in understanding.

            “Okay so, creepy arcade then wild theater. I got it.” He said.


	10. TAKE THAT YOU INHUMAN ASSHOLE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys night out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longer chapter! Yay! There might not be a chapter posted tomorrow, if there is it's going to be earlier in the day. And there most likely won't be one thursday cause you know... christmas. But definitely friday! The places they go in this chapter are legit places in San Fran so some people (allison) shouldn't get on me about them. Also hope you enjoy my little shoutout to generation kill when they're driving.

 

            So once school ended and Webster and Malarkey got out of basketball practice they drove to pick everyone up. They had to find a way to fit themselves, Joe, Skip, Skinny, Guarnere, Toye, Luz, Babe, and Eugene in Webster’s car. Nixon, Winters, Ron, Lip, and Harry would all be in Nixon’s car, and then they were going to meet at the wharf.

            “Okay so if we squeeze we can fit four people a row.” Guarnere said, they were standing outside the car at Toye’s house where him, Toye, Skip and Luz had been hanging out when he went to pick them up.

            “Okay, but that still leaves two people.” Webster said.

            “I can lay across everyone’s laps!” Babe said.

            “I can go in the trunk.” Luz offered.

            “Alrighty, then we’re good.” Guarene said, sliding into the backseat. Webster sat in the front with Joe, Skinny, and Malarkey. Eugene, Skip, Guarnere and Toye all squished into the back. Luz crawled into the boot of the car and Babe shut the trunk door on him, then walked around to the front and sprawled forward onto everyone, causing a commotion.

            “Ow, fuck.”

            “That’s my dick your bony knee is hitting.”

            “Do you have to squirm so much?”

            “No, put your head on Doc’s lap. Just put your head on his lap!”

            Webster started the car and drove out of the driveway.

            “You probably shouldn’t drive too fast or I’m gonna be moving around a lot back here!” They heard Luz yell from the trunk. So Webster took it slow. They got to the Wharf around five and parked next to Nix, who was standing around his car with the other boys.

            “Took you guys long enough.” He said, once Webster got out and walked over to him.

            “Excuse me. I had to fit ten people in a car that’s only supposed to seat six. Luz was in the fucking trunk. I’m sorry we weren’t here ten minutes earlier.” He said, Nix just laughed. Carwood frowned when he saw Malarkey dragging Babe out of the car by his feet.

            “I don’t think it’s safe for him to be lying like that while you were driving.” He said. Webster shrugged.

            “It was the only way for us all to get here.”

            So they all finally got out of the car and walked over to the Wharf. Toye joked about leaving Luz in the trunk, since there’d be no way for him to get out without someone opening it for him, but they just laughed and let him out.

            “That was an interesting experience.” He shared. “At least now when I get kidnapped I’ll know what the drive will be like.”

            “Did he just say _when_ he gets kidnapped?” Joe asked, leaning over to talk in Webster’s ear. “That’s great.” The boys all got dinner at a sub shop and then walked over to the arcade.

            “Didn’t you get kicked out of here once?” Luz asked Nixon as they walked in the doors. Winters nodded for him.

            “Oh yeah he did. I remember. I was with him. They dragged him out and he was screaming, ‘YOU CAN SILENCE THE REBEL BUT THE REBELLION WILL NEVER DIE.”

            “Yeah but why were you kicked out in the first place?” Skip asked, Nixon just shrugged.

            “One of the machines swallowed my quarter.”

            “They kicked you out for that?”

            Winter’s laughed,

            “No, they kicked him out because he started shouting at it, then climbed on top of it and tried to jump inside.”

            “What game was it?” Eugene asked.

            “Drunkard’s Dream.”

            Webster was amazed by what he saw. There were dozens of games, and after reading the signs he knew some of them were made over a hundred years ago. He discovered Lipton had hit the nail on the head when he said it was kind of creepy. The dolls in some of the entertainment machines could give children nightmares. Some of the games themselves were a little unorthodox as well.

            “Harry, come play Opium Den with me.” Skinny said, gesturing for his curly-haired friend to follow as they went down a row of games. They all ran off to different places of the arcade to fool around with the ancient games. Joe stayed with Webster, however, to show him the place since he was the only one who’d never been. They went to the coin machine and Joe put in a five to get some quarters.

            “Some of these games are really fucked up, man.” He said. “But some of them were like the first games, ever.” They messed around and Joe showed Webster all his favorites. All around the arcade they could hear the other boys laughing and shouting. Luz kept feeding quarters into the ferris wheel machine, trying to see how fast he could make it go.

Skip and Malarkey were watching the dancing quartet and grabbed Joe and Webster, claiming they needed them to “imitate the routine.” It just ended with Skip tripped over Webster, sending them both falling, and almost knocking over the machine behind them.

When they passed Eugene and Babe they were sitting in a machine that you were supposed to stay still in and this puppet man would draw out your picture. They were currently making out in it and the puppet was having some trouble putting their moving mouths on paper. When they grabbed the page out of the slot it was a near perfect sketch of their bodies and faces, but the place where their mouths met was practically a scribble.

“That one’s going on the wall.” Babe laughed.

Eventually they ended up around the arm wrestling machine, where Nixon was grappling crazily with the steel man pushing his hand closer and closer to the table.

            “No! No!” He yelled, desperately trying to win, using both hands to pull the thing back. “Dick, help me!” He called to his ginger friend. Richard stood on the other side of the machine and wrapped both his arms around its arm, trying to pull it back.

            “Come on, Nix. We can do this!” He shouted encouragement.

            “No, no. You guys aren’t doing it right.” Guarnere said, popping out of nowhere. “You have to put your weight on it, to push it down. So he climbed around the back of the machine and sat on the metal man’s shoulders, it’s head between his legs. He leaned all his weight forward onto the thing’s arm. Still, however, it seemed that it was beating Nixon, slowly getting closer to pushing his hand into the table. Webster laughed and Winters looked around and saw them.

            “Come on guys, help. We haven’t beaten this thing yet. We need to know it’s possible.” Webster and Joe looked at each other, then shrugged. They both jumped forward and grabbed the arm of the machine, pulling with Winters.

            “Jesus Christ, this thing is strong.” Webster said. Just then one of the men working the store walked into view. His eyes widened when he saw the five of them aggressively molesting the machine. They all instantly let go and Nixon’s hand smashed into the table.

            “FUCK!” He yelled in pain, pulling it back and rubbing it. The guy’s eyes got wider.

            “Yeah, I’m gonna have to ask you to-.” Then he stopped when he saw Nixon. “We’re not gonna have a problem here, are we?” He asked. Nixon shrugged, still rubbing his hand.

            “Probably not. This guy though,” He pointed to the metal man, whose arm was still out suggestively. “him I might have some problems with.”

            “Okay, I think it would be best if you all just left.” The guy said.

            “Alright, alright. We’re going.” Winter said, grabbing Nixon’s wrist and dragging him toward the door. Guarnere dropped off of the machine and he, Joe and Webster followed them out. They stood around the entrance for a few minutes until everyone else came outside as well.

            “Wow, you guys got kicked out _again._ ” Babe said.

            “It wasn’t our fault!” Nix claimed, “That fucking arm wrestling machine is unbeatable!”

            “Well it’s gonna shut down for the night in half an hour anyway, and now we have more time to catch a show at the 7D theater.” Lipton said.

            “Yes!” Skinny said, “Let’s go!” They walked over to the theater, and got in line to buy their tickets.

            “What show should we go to?” Gene asked.

            “Let’s do the zombie one, that one’s the best.” Skinny said, “No, wait! The dinosaurs! No, the aliens!” In the end they did the robots because it was the newest one and thus the only one Skinny hadn’t seen yet.

            “If you get scared I’ll hold your hand.” Joe said teasingly to Webster as they sat down.

            “Will you hold mine if I get scared?” Webster heard Toye’s voice ring out of the darkness on the other side of Liebgott.

            “Shut up.” Joe said, then he heard a _whack_ and Toye went,

            “Ow! Watch where you’re waving that thing, Heffron!” Babe, who was in the row behind him, had hit him in the head with his plastic gun.

            “Oops, sorry.” Babe said.

            “Guys, shut up.” Winters whispered, as the screen glowed to life.

            “I think I have to pee.” Skip announced.

            “Are we going to get snacks?” Malarkey asked.

            “I hope this doesn’t spark my epilepsy.” Guarnere remarked.

            “You don’t have epilepsy.” Toye said.

            “EVERYONE SHUT UP.” Ron yelled. Everyone went quiet, but not for long. They weren’t many other people in the theater, most likely because it was the last showing of the night. So once the movie started, because it was dark enough in the theater that no one’s faces could be seen, everything was fair game. Webster realized pretty early in that even if he could hear the story line, it wouldn’t be that important. What was important was shooting his plastic gun at the screen when there was an abundance of robots.

He could not hear the show though, because Luz was right behind him, making his own dialogue.

            “Oh, Mr. Scientist. Help me, your evil robot abominations have killed my husband. It’s alright lady, I am here to protect you. And help you through the terrible death of the man you loved. Now let’s just get you into something a little more comfortable.”

            “Luz, this is not a porno.” Webster said over his shoulder.

            “Who says it’s not? Do you see any of those robots wearing clothes? ‘Cause I sure don’t.”

            “Both of you shut up and shoot the damn robots before they kill us all.” Harry said from next to Luz. Luz looked back at Webster and smiled.

            “I think Welsh here is taking this a little too seriously.” But all the same Luz stopped talking and aimed his gun at the screen.

            “TAKE THAT YOU INHUMAN ASSHOLE.” Nix yelled, his arm held out so his gun was hanging over the head of Lipton, who was sitting in front of him. His finger was repeatedly pulling the plastic trigger.

            “He’s imagining it’s the arm wrestling machine, I’m sure.” Winter said. Skip kept taking off his 3D glasses and remarking how stupid the movie looked without them.

            “That’s because you’re supposed to keep them on, you snorkel.” Malarkey said, taking the glasses out of Skip’s hand and turning them around to shove them on his friend’s face.

            “Okay, ow.” Skip said, reaching his hand up to adjust the piece of plastic on his face.

            “I would not want to be with any of you idiots in any circumstance where we were actually given guns, and told to fight some enemy.” Ron said, his arm loose, holding his gun out and hitting robots with precision.

            “Are you trying to say if there was actually a legion of metalized mechanisms making their way across the face of the earth with the intent to wipe out all organic life, Skinny would not be the first person you’d call?” Lipton asked, with sarcastic shock. Ron laughed darkly,

            “He would not even make the list.”

            “I hope I’d make the list.” Lip said seriously, Ron turned and looked at him and smiled a sweet smile that literally only Carwood could bring out.

            “You’re the only person on the list.” He said, leaning over and pressing a kiss to Lip’s mouth. Liptop put his gun down and brought his hand around the back of Ron’s neck, opening his mouth and deepening the kiss.

            “Oh god, it’s like watching your parents makeout.” Malarkey said with a grimace. Skinny was too occupied with the screen in front of him to hear what his friend had said.

            “Come on guys, they’re pushing us back! We gotta overtake them!” He yelled.

            Webster and Joe were arguing.

            “That was my kill!” Joe said.

            “I didn’t hear you claim it.”

            “I didn’t know I fucking had to, it was right in front of me!”

            “It didn’t look like you had it!”

            “Well maybe next time you should ask me, ‘Joe do you have that robot?’ instead of fucking shooting it.”

            “Well next time I will!” Their voices were raised but they were holding hands over the arms of their chairs.

            Once the show was over everyone emerged from the theater into the dark of night. It was a little past ten.

            “We should probably all go home, Webster’s got to work tomorrow.” Winter said.

            “It’s true.” Webster added. So they walked back to where their cars were parked and everyone squished back in. Skip volunteered taking the trunk this time but Luz shrugged him off.

            “Ehh, I liked it actually, it was kind of cool.” He said.

            “Well _that_ is weird.” Joe said, before sliding in next to Webster. They drove back to their houses. Skinny put on the radio and found a station with a song everyone liked and soon enough they were all screaming it out the open windows.

            “CAUSE I’M JUST A TEENAGE DIRTBAG BABY. YEAH I’M JUST A TEENAGE DIRTBAG BABY. LISTEN TO IRON MAIDEN BABY WITH ME. OOOOOOOH.” Getting caught up in the moment, singing with his friends, Webster wasn’t paying that much attention to how fast he was going. They were halfway into Avril Lavigne’s Complicated when Eugene leaned over the body of his boyfriend and tapped Joe on the shoulder.

            “Yeah?” Joe asked.

            “Tell David there’s a cop behind us flashing his lights.” Gene said.

            “Oh shit.” Joe looked at Webster. “Doc says there’s a cop behind us wanting us to pullover.” Webster looked down and realized he was going ten miles over the speed limit.

            “Fuck.” He said, putting on his turn signal and pulling over into the shoulder. He tried to turn around in his seat, but because of the lack of space he couldn’t do it fully. “Babe can you grab the registration for the car out of that compartment right there?” He asked.

            “Sure thing, Webster.” Babe said, opening the hatch from his lying position, grabbing the papers out and handing them to Joe who handed them to Webster. By then the cop was tapping on Webster’s window. Webster rolled it down.

            “License and registration please.” The officer said. Webster handed them both over. “You do realize you were going seventy-five in a sixty-five zone?” The cop asked, while looking over the documents. He handed them back to Webster, and then he noticed the number of people in the car.

            “Son, how many people are in this vehicle?” He asked, peering in the window.

            “Nine.” Webster said, praying everyone would be smart and stay quiet about Luz. The cop looked at Babe lying across the laps of the four boys in the back row and he sighed, as if he did not get paid enough to deal with teenagers.

            “Do you really think that’s safe?” He asked.

            “Yeah, but Gene puts his arms around my waist, so I’m secure.” Babe replied, looking down at how he was wrapped up in his Cajun’s arms like they were his seatbelt. The Cajun himself met the cop’s eyes and gave him a smile and a “please don’t arrest all of us” look. The cop sighed again and pulled his head out of the car.

            “I’m gonna give you a warning about the speeding and the… _this._ ” He gestured with his hand to the back row. “Just go home now, alright?”

            “Yessir.” Webster said.

            “And watch your speed.”

            “Yessir.”

            The officer started walking back to his cruiser when there was a thump in the trunk.

            “Fuck!” Luz’s voice called out. The cop stopped, and Joe groaned. The cop walked over to the boot of the car and popped the trunk. Luz was lying in the space, rubbing at his head. He looked up and smiled awkwardly at the policeman. “Hello, sir. Wonderful weather we’re having, huh?” The cop didn’t say anything, just looked back over at Webster, who was leaning out of his window.

            “Yeah, I might’ve been a little off in my estimate of how many people were in the car,” he said. He looked down at the pavement below his car and rubbed slowly at the back of his neck. “We won’t do it again?” He suggested.

            “Don’t.” The cop said, slamming the trunk down.

            “Oh shit.” Luz said, still inside. The cop finished the return to his car, then drove off into the night. Webster sighed with relief.

            “Well that was close.” Guarnere said. They drove back and Webster dropped everyone off at their individual houses. Joe was the last one. When he stopped in front of his boyfriend’s house it was nearly eleven. Joe reached over for the door handle, then thought better of it. And Webster really didn’t want to see him go.

            “You can stay at my place tonight.” He said. Joe looked over at him confused. “You can climb up through the window.” He explained. Joe thought about it for a moment, then smiled.

            “Alright.” So they went to Webster’s house. Webster parked in the driveway and made a move for the front door, but Joe stopped him with his hands around his waist and spun him around, pressing a kiss to his mouth. “I’ll see you upstairs.” He said with a wink that made all of Webster’s blood rush south. Then he turned and walked around the edge of the house, to the backyard. Webster unlocked the front door and went in.

            He said hello to his parents who were watching TV in the living room. They asked how his night out was and he said it was fine, but he was beat so he was just going to go to bed. They told him to sleep well. He raced up the stairs and when he got into his room Joe was already waiting for him, laying on his bed with his face nuzzled in Webster’s pillow.

            Webster took off his shoes and socks, shucked off his jeans, and turned off the light, before settling in next to Joe, wrapping his arm around his chest.

            “If you tell anyone,” Joe mumbled into the mattress, “that I am the little spoon. I swear to god, College Boy,”

            Webster just laughed and shut his eyes.


	11. It's Been Good, It's Been Real, But Its Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Webster's first day at work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter chapter because I was really busy. Most likely no chapter tomorrow. I'm sorry :( MERRY CHRISTMAS THOUGH. some of the conversations in this chapter were inspired by real things that have happened while i was out with my friends, so if they seem weird, that's why.

            The next morning Webster was greeted by the sun shining through his window and Joe’s face inches from his own. The boy’s eyes were shut, his lips were parted slightly and his hair was a mess. Webster stared at him for a moment, but then he heard his parents moving around downstairs and Joe’s eyes blinked open. He made a move as if to get out of the bed but Webster kept him there with a hand wrapped around his wrist.

            “You don’t have to go,” he said, “I pulled up the rope to the stairs so they can’t come up even if they want to.”

            Joe nodded in understanding and then lied back down.

            “Is your mom going to be angry that you stayed out all night?” Webster asked, he felt Joe shrug against his body.

            “Nah, she’s pretty trusting like that.”

            “Oh wow. My parents would kill me.”

            Joe turned over onto his side so he was once again looking at Webster and kissed him hard on the mouth,

            “What would they do if they knew about that?” He asked.

            “Definitely kill me.” Webster replied.

            “Shit.” Joe said softly.

            “What about your mom?” Webster said, “Does she know that you’re…”

            “Gay? Yeah she knows. Known for awhile.”

            “Oh.”

            They lied in silence, drifting in and out of sleep for while, before Joe leaned over, grabbed his phone of the table, and checked the time.

            “You have to get to work in an hour. So I should probably go.” He said.

            “Alright.”

            Joe put back on his pants from the day before and laced up his shoes quickly before climbing out onto the ledge and jumping over to the tree. Webster watched him shimmy down and then walk toward the street. He got ready for work and headed out.

            The manager of Lindberg’s Pizza explained to him what he would be doing. It

wasn’t really that complicated. He would wear the apron, take orders, give the orders to the chef, bring drinks to the table, bring food to the table, occasionally check on the table to make sure everything was okay, and then bring the check. He was two and a half hours into his four hour shift when he walked to a table that had familiar faces at it, smiling up at him gleefully.

            “Hello, dear waiter, sir. I would like one pizza with everything on it.” Guarnere said. Toye was sitting next to him, and Perconte and another kid from their school, Bull Randleman, were on the other side of the booth.

            “You do realize you get two toppings for free, and then everyone after that is fifty cents extra.” Webster informed.

            “I am aware, you kind gentleman scholar, you. And that is why I brought extra cash.” Guarnere slapped down a twenty and some change as if it were a briefcase full of hundreds.

            “Alrighty then. And what about a drink, fine customer?”

            “Coke.”

            “I’ll take a Sprite.” Toye said, “And a BLT sandwich, but with no T, or mayo. Oh and with cheese!”

            “So a BLC.” Perconte remarked. Webster wrote it all down.

            “I’ll get a Coke, and a medium meatlover’s pizza.” Bull said.

            “Yeah, Randleman loves the meat over here.” Guarnere teased.

            “And I will get a small milk please, and-.” But Perconte didn’t get to finish his order because Guarnere and Toye were too busy laughing over him. “What’s so funny?” He asked.

            “Did you just order milk?” Toye said, his face red.

            “Yeah, what’s wrong with milk?”

            “Nothing’s wrong with milk, it’s just the way you said it, ‘I will get a small milk please.’ It’s weird.”

            “It’s not weird!”

            “Ordering milk at a restaurant is kind of weird.” Bull said.

            “People order chocolate milk all the time!”

            “Yeah but it’s chocolate milk, it’s a completely different thing.”

            “Well whatever. I want milk. Sue me if you want. Milk and a chicken calzone.” Perconte said to Webster.

            “Alright, I’ll go put the order in.” Webster told them, walking over to give the piece of paper to the chef. He brought stuff to some of his other tables and was standing at the waiters’ station when the only other waiter working that shift, a kid not much older than him who was named Floyd Talbert, came by and stopped to talk to him.

            “Hey do you know those guys at table six?” He asked.

            “Yeah, why?” Webster said.

            “They are currently building a house of cards out of the coasters.”

            Webster walked back out into the front and saw Toye leaning over an already four story high coaster tower, trying to place two more on top. Guarnere was going over to other tables asking if they were willing to donate their coasters for the noble cause.

            “What the hell are you doing?” He asked, startling Toye, who turned around.

            “What the hell are _you_ doing? You nearly made me knock it over.”

            “Do you really want to get me fired on my first day?”

            Toye just laughed,

            “There’s no way they can prove you have any affiliation with us, at the most, they’ll kick us out.” Webster sighed and ran his hand across his face.

            “Well then let’s try this, do you really want me to have to kick out my friends on my first day?” Toye thought about it for a moment.

            “I suppose not.” He replied. “Guys, it is time for the demolition of our tower, it’s been good, it’s been real, but as fair Webster here has pointed out, the only end that can come of it is not a good one.”

            “Why are you so dramatic.” Webster mumbled into his hands. Perconte and Bull helped Toye take the tower down without just knocking the whole thing over, and Guarnere came back carrying a stack of more coasters. He stopped when he saw what they were doing.

            “Aw, we’re taking it down?” He asked disappointedly.

            “Damn right, you’re taking it down.” Webster said. “Now let me go see if your food is ready.” When he brought out their meals they jumped on them ravenously. They tipped him better than he expected and left a note on the receipt that said,

            “Tell management we appreciated getting such a pretty waiter” in Guarnere’s skinny scrawl.

            Later that night when Joe came over he asked Webster how his first day at work had gone.

            “It was definitely interesting.” Webster replied. Joe nodded,

            “That’s good. That’s good. Now,” He pulled Webster closer and moved his mouth close to his ear, “take off your pants.”


	12. We Need A Getaway Driver

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Babe and Skip recruit Webster in attempting to get vengeance on their teacher.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone had a merry christmas! I know I did! Here's the chapter that has been referenced too in the tags.

            “That was fucking insane! I can’t believe he did that to us!” It was Tuesday lunch and Babe and Skip were both complaining about the pop exam their teacher had sprung on them in second block.

            “One day he’s all ‘oh this isn’t that important for you to know’ and the next he’s all “HERE’S THIS TEST WITH ALL THAT STUFF I SAID WASN’T IMPORTANT. I LIED THIS IS 100% OF YOUR GRADE. YOU GET TEN MINUTES TO COMPLETE THIS AND IF YOU GET LOWER THAN A B MINUS I WILL PERSONALLY CALL YOUR PARENTS AND TELL THEM WHAT A LOSER YOU ARE. THEN YOU’LL NEVER PASS AND NEVER GRADUATE AND BE LIVING IN CARDBOARD BOXES FOR THE REST OF YOUR NATURAL BORN LIFE. OH AND SANTA’S NOT REAL BY THE WAY.”

            “This is completely bogus, man.” Skip sighed. Later that night, Webster was studying for a health test when he got a call from Babe.

            “Hey, what’s up?” He answered.

            “Hey, Skip and I need your help with something.”

            Webster sighed, whatever this was he figured it wouldn’t be good. They were most certainly not going to be delivering care packages to sick children in the hospital.

            “What do you want?” He asked.

            “We want to do something of questionable legality and need a getaway driver.”

            Webster sighed again and ran his hand through his hair.

            “Do I need to pick you guys up at your houses?”

            “Yeah, that’d be great thanks.”

            When Webster finally had Babe and Skip in his car he asked them to where was he supposed to drive.

            “Drive to the dollar store.” Skip told him. When they got there he parked and went in with them. Babe immediately sprinted over to the candy aisle. Skip and Webster followed him.

            “Alright, how much money do you have, Webster?” Babe asked. Webster looked in his wallet.

            “Sixty-eight dollars.” He announced. Babe nodded, reaching over to grab a bag of gummy bears off of its hook.

            “Okay, and I have a hundred and twenty. Skip how much do you have?”

            “Ninety-eight.”

            “Fuck that means we can get… a lot of bags of gummy bears. How many is that exactly?” The ginger looked over at Webster, who shrugged.

            “Don’t ask me, I was failing Calc, remember?”

            Skip thought about it for a moment, then said,

            “Well each bag is fifty cents, and we have two hundred and eighty-six dollars. So that’s… 572 bags of gummy bears. Or we can get the really big bags, which are each five dollars, and that’s forty-nine bags.”

            “Which choice do you think will get us more gummy bears?”

            “I’d say probably the bigger bags.”

            “Awesome.” Babe started pulling the large bags of gummy bears off the shelves. “Someone get a cart.” He said. Skip went off to grab one and Webster just watched Babe.

            “What exactly do we need enough gummy bears to feed a small country for?” He asked.

            “I’ll tell you if you promise you’ll help.” Babe said. Webster knew he was going to regret this, but he said anyway,

            “Alright. I promise.”

            “Okay so, Mr. Dyke.”

            “The teacher that gave you the bullshit exam?”

            “Yep. I overheard him say the other day how much he can’t stand gummy bears. He went on a little bit about it to some other teacher. He just hates them. And I also overheard him say he had to stay really late today to grade all those goddamn exams. _And_ I noticed when leaving the school that he had left the front window of his Mini Cooper slightly open.”

            “Oh no.” Webster said, realization dawning.

            “Oh yes.” Skip grinned. Walking back into the aisle with the shopping cart. They filled it with forty-nine three-pound bags of gummy bears, then walked over to register.

            “Is this for a party?” The lady ringing them up asked.

            “No, it’s for an experiment.” Babe said with a smirk. When the total came up Skip and Babe forked over their money, then looked at Webster expectantly.

            “I cannot believe I’m going along with this.” He said, taking the sixty-something dollars out of his pocket and giving them to Babe who gave them to the cashier.

            “Hey, you have a job now. You’ll make it back.” Skip said. They brought the cart out of the store and unloaded the bags into Webster’s backseat, and trunk. Then they drove to the school. Mr. Dyke’s Mini Cooper was parked in the back lot, where the teacher’s are supposed to park. It was right under a streetlight so Webster could see that the front window was, in fact, slightly open.

            “Come on, this is gonna be great.” Babe said, getting out of the car. They brought as many bags over as they could carry, then ripped them open and started dumping them one by one into the car. One might think it’d take a long time for a vehicle to get filled with gummy bears, but they were about fifteen minutes in, and they were already ripping open the twenty-fifth bag. The gummy bears were already piling up on the seats.

            “Take this you fucking asshole. Giving us an exam like that with no warning.” Babe muttered while he poured the candy through the window. The gummy bear line was up to the middle of the window, and they only had four bags left when they heard the siren flare behind them.

            “You have got to be kidding me.” Webster muttered. Babe grabbed one of the last bags and ripped it open quickly.

            “Hurry!” He called, “We have to finish it!” When he ran over to the window half of the bag emptied out on the street around him. There were rainbow gummy bears all over the ground. “Get them in the window! Quick!” He shoved the bag at Webster who turned and started pouring. Skip grabbed a bag himself and climbed on top of the car, deciding to try to coat that as well. He emptied it on top of the car and dozens of gummy bears rained down on Webster’s head.

            “What is going on here?” A deep voice said behind them. The three of them whirled around to find a police officer stepping out of his vehicle. Webster realized with a groan it was the same officer from the week before. He could tell by the way he stopped that he had recognized them as well.

            “Umm… we can explain.”

            Five minutes later they were in the back of a cruiser headed to the station.

            “You know I don’t think we broke any laws.” Babe kept trying to talk to the cop from the back seat. “We didn’t break anything, we didn’t steal anything, we were actually giving the guy something! The joy of gummy bears!”

            “We can’t go to prison, Babe.” Skip said, worried, “I wouldn’t last in prison!” Babe looked back at him,

            “Ehhh… I think you’d be all right, now _Webster_ here, he wouldn’t last in prison. Face like that, he’d be somebody’s bitch, day one.”

            “Thanks, Babe.” Webster said, staring out the window. He knew they weren’t actually getting arrested, but he also knew they would probably detain the three of them until they could get someone to come pick them up. When they got the station he was proven correct by the officer who led them into the holding cell. They sat on the concrete floor and Skip told them all the nasty stories he’d heard about prison.

            “And then they give you mush for food, and if you don’t like it, they shank you!”

            “Skip, we’re not going to prison.” Webster said, “They put us in here to scare us more than anything. Gummy Bearing a car is not a felony.”

            About fourty-five minutes in the cop came back and said they could make phone call. Babe jumped up immediately,

            “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!” And he ran out of the room. Thirty minutes later Nixon was standing in the middle of the station, here to pick up his friends. It was a little past nine o’clock. They grabbed their jackets and phones and walked towards the door.

            “Hey, wait.” The police officer said, they turned around. “I have to know, why were you filling a car with candy?”

            Babe smirked,

            “Justice.”

            “It was our teacher’s car, he’s a dick and earlier today he sprung a huge exam on us with no warning.” Skip explained. The policeman’s eyebrows furrowed, then he started chuckling and went back to his desk. Nixon led the boys out to his car, where Webster and Babe both groaned when they saw Eugene and Joe sitting in the backseat.

            “You called them?” Babe asked exasperatedly. Nixon nodded.

            “You’re goddamn right I did. Thought they should know their significant other had an altercation with the law.”

            “Shotgun!” Skip called, running around to hop in the passenger side. Babe and Webster got in the back, squished next to their boyfriends. It was quiet for a moment then Joe’s voice came out of the dark, speaking slowly as if dragging out his words.

            “You…filled his car, with gummy bears.”

            “Hey,” Webster said defensively, “it wasn’t my idea.”

            “You listened to Babe and Skip, when they wanted to fill his car… with gummy bears.”

            “Excuse me, we are geniuses.” Skip said, looking back from his seat. “Right, Babe?” Babe glanced at Eugene, who was staring at him expectantly.

            “Maybe it wasn’t the best idea…” He said. It was quiet again until Eugene said,

            “You better at least have gotten a picture.”

            Babe pulled up the photo that he took of the gummy bear filled Mini Cooper while he was being escorted to the car by the cop, and handed his phone over to his boyfriend, who laughed outright.

            “Oh god, I would’ve killed to see his reaction when he came out to that.”

            Webster looked over at Joe and was practically pouting. Joe met his eyes and sighed,

            “Jesus, Web.”

            “It was actually really funny though.”

            Joe sighed again and ran his hand through his hair.

            “Alright, show me the goddamn photo.” Eugene passed the phone to Joe. “Holy shit, that is a lot of gummy bears.” He said. Webster grinned. “Hey, no smiling, you’re still in trouble.” Joe said, which just made Webster smile harder. When Nixon dropped them of at his house Webster went inside and Joe went around to climb through his window. They were making out on his bed, and Joe had his hands in Webster’s hair when he stopped, and pulled back.

            “What?” Webster asked. Joe took his hand out of Webster’s hair and showed in a small yellow gummy bear held between his fingers.

            “This was in your hair.” He said.


	13. No Chance, No Way, I Won't Say It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Joe gets hounded by friends. Webster meets Joe's family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first part of this was inspired by me imagining a I Won't Say I'm In Love scene where Joe was Meg and Webster was the Muses. Idk I thought it'd be funny.

Skinny stood over Joe’s desk in first block and looked down at his friend.

            “What are ya doing?” He asked. Joe didn’t look up from his phone when he answered,

“Texting Web, he’s coming over my house tomorrow and wants to know if he’s supposed to bring anything.” It was a Friday in the middle of April, spring break was fast approaching and no one was really taking school seriously because of that. Skinny stared down at Joe.

            “You mean… he’s coming over to have crazy gay sex?” That got Joe to look up,

            “No…. I mean he’s coming over to have dinner.”

            “Oh shit. Now what happened to the Joe that just last September said he’d never fall in love?” Skinny grabbed a chair and sat down across from Joe.

            “Whoa, I am not in love.” Joe defended himself.

            “Oh please,” Skinny leaned back, “you totally are! You’re inviting Webster over to meet your _mom_. You love the boy, don’t even try to deny it.”

            “I do not.”

            “He doesn’t what?” Luz asked, sitting in the desk next to Joe’s.

            “Joe’s trying to convince us he’s not in love with Webster.” Skinny explained.

            “I’m not!” Joe said. “Maybe I’m in love with the way his tongue feels in my mouth, but I’m definitely not in love with him.”

            Luz just laughed,

            “That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. The only person in the world who’s as in love with someone as you are with Webster is Webster in love with you.” That gave Joe pause,

            “Really? You guys think Webster’s in love with me?”

            Skinny groaned,

            “Both of you, you’re unbelievable. First you’re fighting like crazy, as if you don’t know you’re going to hookup, now you’re denying the fact that you are totally completely in love.”

            “We’re just dating, it doesn’t mean we’re in love.” Joe said.

            “Who do you think you’re kidding? You practically worship that boy!” Luz looked around the classroom, “Here, watch this.” He said, “Hey, Christenson!” Pat Christenson turned to the three of them.

            “Yeah?”

            “Who does Liebgott here love?” Pat shrugged as if the question was easy.

            “David Webster.” He said, looking back down at his paper.

            “Thank you.” Luz said, waving his hand. “See?” He said to Joe. Joe shook his head.

            “You’re all insane.”

            “Joseph, what is currently your phone background?” Skinny asked. Joe’s face turned slightly red.

            “I don’t see why that’s important.” He grumbled.

            “Just tell us what it is, Joe.” Skinny said.

            “Its Web trying to lick whipped cream off his nose.” He said indignantly.

            “And you still don’t think you’re in love with the boy?”

            “No.”

            Luz huffed,

            “You are a lost cause. When are you gonna catch up and realize you’re in love with him. You’ve been in love with him for awhile now.”

            “I think, if I were in love with someone, I would know.” Joe said.

            “You wouldn’t, apparently! That’s why you need good friends like us to open your eyes.” Skinny yelled.

            “Well I appreciate the effort, I really do. But I am not in love with David Webster.”

            “Then go a day without talking to him.” Luz said.

            “What?”

            “Come on, you’re not in love with Webster, bullshit. I bet you, you cannot even go the rest of this day without talking to him. Texting too.”

            Joe looked at the both of them incredulously,

            “Guys, this is stupid. I’m not gonna take that bet.”

            “Of course not.” Skinny teased, “Because you looooove him.” He smiled.

            “No. Because it’s unreasonable. I am texting Web right now. How do you think he’d feel if I just never answered him?”

            “Heartbroken,” Skinny said, “because he is also madly in love with you.”

            “We are not in love!” Joe shouted causing the teacher to look over and shush him. “We are not in love.” He repeated softer.

            “Yeah sure you’re not. Sure you’re not.” Luz said. “Now calm down and go back to texting your boyfriend heart emojis.” Joe looked back down at his phone sulkily. About twenty minutes later he got a picture message from Skip.

            “Look at what your stupid boyfriend did.” It read, and the attached photo was of Webster sitting on top of a pyramid of chairs. He was laughing, his face all lit up, and Joe could help but smile at the picture.

            “Tell him he’s gonna fucking hurt himself,” Joe texted back. He was still looking at the photo when Skinny came around and peered over his shoulder.

            “Smiling at your crotch, bro, it’s kind of creepy.” Skinny said. Then, “Ooh what’s this?” He looked at the photo, then at Joe, then back at the photo. “Yeah sure,” he said, straightening up and going back to his seat, “you’re totally not in love with Webster, what was I thinking.”

 

 

 

            It was five o’clock, after his shift on Saturday, and Webster was standing outside Joe’s house, hand ready to ring the doorbell. He was wearing his nice khaki pants and a Bastille t-shirt under a button up with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. He pressed the bell and heard a ding go off in the house. He stood there for a couple seconds until the door was opened by a little girl. She was wearing messy braids and her head barely came up to the doorknob.

            “Who are you?” She asked, in an aggressive manner just like her older brother’s.

            “Ummm, I’m here to see Joe?” Webster asked awkwardly. She stared at him for a moment longer, then turned to look back in the house.

            “Joey!” She yelled, “There’s a _boy_ here to see you!” Then she took off running down the hall in the direction she’d just yelled, leaving Webster standing in front of the open door. It wasn’t for long though, because she was quickly replaced by two more small children, this time a boy and a girl. They both looked up at him then started spewing out questions.

            “Who are you?”

            “What are you doing here?”

            “Are you Joey’s boyfriend?”

            “What’s that on your shirt?”

            “Why are you just standing out there?”

            “How come I’ve never met you before?”

            “Jesus Christ. Andy, Mary, leave him alone.” Joe came into the picture, the first little girl was hanging off his back, her arms around her neck. “Flo, get off of me, what do you weigh, three hundred pounds?” He grabbed at the arms of the girl.

            “I do not!” She said, but dropped off of him anyway.

            “Why don’t you guys go see if Mom needs any help with the shepherd’s pie?” Joe suggested, the three little kids ran off and then it was just Joe and Webster standing on opposite sides of an open door.

            “Hi.” Joe said, Webster’s eyes were slightly wide.

            “Hello.” He replied. Joe seemed to notice Webster was still outside.

            “Oh shit, come on in. I think the foods just about ready.” He took a step back and Webster walked in. “So you already met Andy, Mary, and Flo. They’re all little terrors.” He explained as they walked down the hall.

            “Those are your siblings?” Webster asked.

            “Yep, three of them. Flo’s the youngest, she’s six. Andy and Mary are both eight. Then there’s Eddie, he’s nine, and Nate is eleven.”

            “Christ.”

            “Yeah I know.” They came into the kitchen and Webster took in the sight of the women standing at the stove. She was skinny, and tall, and had long wavy brown hair. She was bending over to take a glass pan out of the oven. She put it on the stovetop, then turned around and her eyes lit up.

            “Oh, David. Oh my god!” She rushed forward and pulled Webster into a big hug. “I’ve heard so much about you!” She said when she pulled back, her face was kind and motherly and nothing like his own mom’s.

            “You have?” He asked, smiling, he glanced over at Joe, who had blushed.

            “She hasn’t heard that much.” Joe muttered. His mom shook his head at him.

            “Oh yes I have. He goes on about you all time.”

            “ _Mom._ ”

            “Alright, alright. Dinner’s ready anyway. Come on boys.” She took the pan off the stovetop and they followed her into the dining room. It was a mess, exactly how Webster pictured Joe’s house to be. Just like him, dirty and loud but filled with love and laughter. There were three other children in the dining room, rushing around to put plates on the table. One was an older boy Webster hadn’t seen yet, and the twins.

            “Nate, go get Flo and Eddie.” Joe’s mom told the boy, who nodded.

            “FLO. EDDIE. FOOD’S READY.” He screamed.

            “Well I could’ve done that!” Miss Liebgott said, putting the shepherd’s pie down on the table and her hands on her hips.

            “Well then why didn’t you?” Nate shrugged.

            “Shut up and sit down.” Joe ordered his younger sibling, who did as told.

            “David, honey, you can sit there next to Joey.” Joe’s mom said. Joe pulled out a chair for him.

            “Alright, Miss Liebgott.”

            “Oh please, call me Katja.”

            “Alright then.” They all sat down around the table and when the two missing children came in Webster almost gasped. The little boy, Eddie, looked exactly like how he imagined a little Joe would look. It was actually frightening.

            “Did you clone yourself or something?” He leaned over and whispered in Joe’s ear. Joe looked confused so Webster laughed. Did he really not notice his little brother bore a striking resemblance to himself?

            “So, David, you’re an only child?” Katja started the usual parent interview once the younger kids were quieted by the food in their mouths. Webster nodded.

            “Yeah, I’m pretty sure my parents just had kids because it was expected. They definitely didn’t want more than one.”

            “Well some people just aren’t suited to care for a lot of children.” She said, Webster knew she definitely wasn’t speaking from experience. She seemed like the type of mother who was well accustomed to dealing with all of her children on her own.

            “How are you doing in school?”

            “Oh, well, I do alright. Except for Calculus. But um…” He looked over at Joe. “ _Joey_ here told me to get a tutor.” Joe groaned and dropped his head, looking as if he really regretted bringing Webster to meet his family. They ate their food and Katja continued to ask him questions, about his work, about his classes, about what life was like in Boston. When their plates were cleared she instructed Andy and Mary to go get the desert out of the fridge.

            Webster really liked Joe’s mom at that point. She was funny, kind, smart, pretty, he didn’t understand why she was single. But he supposed there were six little answers sitting around the table with him. He laughed to himself imagining Joe trying to intimidate some new boyfriend of his mom’s.

            The kids started to get loud again while they were eating their desert, whoopee pies Joe had apparently made earlier in the day. They started prattling to Webster about the girl they’d kissed in class, or the special that was on TV the night before, or in the little’s girl’s case, “how come Joey’s got such a pretty boyfriend?”Webster didn’t really think he was good with kids, he always felt awkward around them because he didn’t want to treat them condescendingly but knew he couldn’t talk to them as if they were adults. But he felt pretty comfortable around Joe’s siblings. They were loud and demanded attention but usually if he just laughed and nodded they barreled right along with whatever they were doing.

            They finished desert and the kids all ran off to do their own things and Katja said she’d clean up if Webster and Joe wanted to go up to his room. So up they went.

            “I’m the only one ‘sides Mom with my own room. Which is great.” Joe said, as they walked up the stairs. There were toys all lined along the side that would probably be a hazard when it’s dark or you’re not paying attention. “Flo and Mary room together, and then Andy and Eddie have bunk-beds and Nate’s got a single all in one room.”

            “That’s cool.” Webster said. It was one of those cases, he thought, where the grass is always greener on the other side. Joe has gone on to him before about how Web was so lucky being an only child, having space and silence and no responsibility except himself. But looking around Joe’s house he would’ve given anything to be raised in an environment like this.

            “So this is it.” Joe said when they walked into his room. It was messy, per expectations. There were stacks of comic books on the cluttered desk, baseball trophies on a small shelf, a pile of clothes on the floor in the corner. There was a guitar on a stand and Webster walked over to it.

            “You play?” He asked, plucking at the strings. Joe shrugged.

            “Not nearly as good as Malark. That’s why I’m the singer.” He laughed. There were posters on the walls, of sports teams and bands, the movie Saving Private Ryan, and Fight Club.

            “Those are my favorite movies.” Joe explained when he saw Webster looking at them.

            “You think I don’t know?” Webster smirked. They had watched Fight Club twice, the first time because Joe nearly had an aneurysm when he found out Webster hadn’t seen it. And the second time because Webster kept trying to start something with Joe in the dark and Joe angrily huffed, “You’re missing the best parts!”

            “So your mom is awesome.” Webster said as he walked over to the shelves with all of Joe’s CD’s and movies.

            “She’s alright.” Joe said, smiling. He came up behind Webster and put his arms around his waist, resting his forehead on Webster’s shoulder.

            “I’m serious though. Like she’s nice, but she seems like she doesn’t put up with any of your shit.”

            “She most certainly does not.” Joe reached around Webster to grab the DVD for Independence Day. “Wanna watch this?” He asked. Webster nodded so they put it in. They sat in the large black beanbag chair Joe had, practically squished on top of each other but warm and comfortable. It was most likely that warmth and comfort that lead to them falling asleep next to each other.

            It was dark outside as well as inside when the door to Joe’s room opened.

            “David, honey.” Katja’s voice called. He blinked open his eyes slowly.

            “Mmmhm?” He mumbled sleepily. The TV screen was playing the title menu for Independence Day, the movie long over.

            “It’s almost midnight.” She said, “I think your parents might start to get worried if you’re not home soon.” Webster nodded and pushed himself up. Joe was still sound asleep.

“What about him?” Webster asked, standing up and looking down at his boyrfriend.

“I’ll wake him up and tell him to get into his own bed once you leave.” She said. Webster followed Katja out of Joe’s room and down the stairs.

“Thanks for having me.” Webster said, his voice low.

“Thank _you_ , for keeping my Joey out of trouble.” She smiled. “Maybe sometime soon we can all get together with your parents, that’d be nice.” Webster was wide awake at that.

“I don’t think that’ll happen.” He said, trying not to sound curt. Katja looked confused at first but then it seemed to dawn on her what he meant.

“Oh, sweetie. They don’t know?” Webster shook his head profusely. “I respect your decision, but you know, nothing good comes out of keeping secrets. Especially not ones like this.”

“Nothing good will come out of telling them.” Webster said sincerely, then he said goodbye to Joe’s mom, and went out to his car.


	14. He's Got That Cajun Magic Thing Going On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys go to Winters' lakehouse for spring break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! The next few chapters are going to be their vacation. I'm writing a lot of fluff before the sad things happen once they get back. I mean what? No... no sad things happen, ever. only happy things... pshhh

That Monday was the day someone finally brought up spring break plans. They were gathered around their usual table in the morning, Luz’s sign reading,

“Reserved for the Gays (closeted and otherwise) and Bisexuals” finally listening to Skip’s ranting.

They had been mentioning in passing doing something over the break next week, but no one had tried to lay down any concrete plans. Except that day when Winters and Nixon came in pretty much the first thing Winters said was,

“We can use my parents’ lake house.”

“Huh?” Toye asked.

“My parents have a lake house up north, they said we can all go stay up there for the week if we want.” He explained.

“That’s actually a great idea!” Lipton said.

“Yeah and Gene’s birthday is next Monday so we can throw a party for him.” Babe suggested.

“Well, I don’t know about a party…” Eugene shrugged. But then it was settled, they were going to Winters’ lake house for vacation.

The next few days passed with everyone getting excited and the more responsible ones going over the details. Nixon would drive up with Winters (obviously), Skinny, Guarnere and Toye. In Webster’s car would be himself, Joe, Malarkey, Skip, Babe and Eugene. Speirs, who had just gotten his license the week prior, would go with Lip and Luz. Their car was where everyone would put the bags that didn’t fit in the other two cars. They were going to leave at nine Saturday morning, and were expected to arrive around one or two.

Webster woke up on Saturday to his phone buzzing up by his head. He gently pushed Joe’s head off his chest so he could lean over and grab it. A glance at the screen told him it was Malarkey.

“What do you want?” He asked, groggily.

“Webster, I had a dream last night that I was trapped in a pool with hundreds of whales, what do you think it means?” Malark’s worried voice came over the line. Webster sighed,

“It probably means you’re going to die if you go on this trip.” Webster said deadpan.

“Are you serious?” Malarkey asked.

“Of course I’m not serious. Dreams don’t always mean something.” Webster said, hanging up. The time said it was almost seven so they should probably start getting ready.

“Joe.” He said, shaking Joe gently to wake him up.

“Nnnngh not yet.” Joe grumbled.

“Come on Joe.” Webster smiled, “If you wake up now maybe I’ll blow you before we leave.” And at that Joe’s eye were open in a flash.

“I’m awake.”

            By nine-thirty they had picked everyone up and were out on the highway. Webster was following Speirs who was following Nix. Skip, who was sitting next to Joe in the front, kept pitching this road trip mix he had made.

            “Come on! We need to listen to it! I made it specifically for this event!” He begged. Webster sighed.

            “Fine, put it on.” He allowed.

            “Yes!” Skip rejoiced. He plugged his phone into the aux chord and started the playlist.

            “It’s called Muck’s Happy Playlist For Joys and Friends.”

            “That’s really long.” Babe pointed out.

            “Shut up, Heffron. You make the playlist, you get to name it.”

            “Whoa, whoa. Where’s all the joy and friends?” Babe asked defensively.

            “He put it all into the playlist, he doesn’t have it anymore.” Joe said. New Age Girl by Deadeye Dick started playing through the speakers.

            “I’VE GOT A NEW AGE GIRL.” Skip yelled. Everyone joined in and they sang their way into northern California. They arrived at the lake house and pushed their way out of the vehicles, wanting to stretch their legs after the long ride.

            “Come on, Gene, we gotta get in there soon so we can get first pick at a bedroom.” Babe said, tugging on his boyfriend’s arm.

            “It’s not our house.” Eugene said, walking over to Speirs’s car to grab their bags. “We can’t just barge in and lay claim to a room.” Everyone got their bags and Winters led the way inside. They went into a large, cozy-looking living room and that’s where Winters stopped.

            “All right guys, this is it. Feel free to wander and look around. There are six bedrooms. Two with doubles, one with a double and a single, one with two singles, one with a set of bunk beds, and one with a set of bunk beds and a single. I guess it’s just gonna be a free for all so whoever claims a bed first gets it.” After he said that it was mayhem. All the guys rushed off to claim a bed. Speirs got into one of the rooms with one double first and no one was willing to fight him for it. Joe started yelling at Babe for the other one but Webster pulled him back, saying,

            “Come on, let’s just take the one with the single as well. Skinny is most likely gonna burst in to annoy us in the morning anyway, so he might as well be only a few feet away.”

            “I would never do that!” Skinny shouted, overhearing from the hallway. Nevertheless when Webster dropped their bags on the bed Skinny jumped on the single next to it and flopped back.

            “Ah this is going to be a fun little threesome, isn’t it?” He said contently. Joe glared at him. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding.” He put his hands up defensively. “In all honestly please don’t have sex while I’m sleeping next to you, I think it might scar me forever.”

            Once it was all settled the room arrangements were this, Lipton and Speirs stayed in one of the doubles, Babe and Eugene stayed in the other. Webster and Joe and Skinny stayed in the double with the single. Nixon and Winters stayed in the room with the two singles, Malarkey and Skip got one set of bunk beds and Guarnere, Toye and Luz stayed in the room with the set of bunks and the single.

            Eventually everyone migrated downstairs, where Luz was trying to set his wii up to the TV in the living room. Malarkey and Toye were down in the basement, where Winters said they had a lot of games and such in storage, and Babe, Eugene, Skinny, Speirs and Lipton were outside taking a walk along the shore of the lake.

            “We’re going to have to go grocery shopping.” Winters said as they sat on the couches in the living room, watching Guarnere kick Luz’s ass in Mario Kart. “There’s no food in the fridge and we obviously need stuff to get through the week.”

            “I’ll go with you guys,” Skip volunteered.

            “Yeah, we’ll go too.” Joe said from where he was sitting on the couch, watching the race, with Webster’s head in his lap.

            “Alright, well let’s compile a list.” Winters said. He pulled up the notes on his phone. “Is there anything specific people want?”

            “Bacon!”

            “Mountain Dew!”

            “Fruit Roll Ups!” They spent the next half an hour making the food list. When the other boys all came back into the living room they sat around on the leftover couch space and the floor and contributed as well. Eventually they had the list put together and Winters, Nixon, Joe, Webster, and Skip all got into Nixon’s car and headed to the nearest market.

            “Okay. We gotta be strategic with this.” Winter said, as they walked through the automatic doors. He split up the list and gave them each a piece of it, then sent them off. Webster was in aisle 5, trying to remember which type of cereal Lipton said he wanted. Suddenly he heard movement behind him, and when he turned to look he saw Joe had crept up on him. He was now jumping into the shopping cart, and riding it down the aisle.

            “What the fuck are you doing?” He laughed, watching his boyfriend crash into a rack full of magazines.

            “Making this stupid shopping trip fun.” Joe said, sitting up in the cart.

            “You’re the one who volunteered us to come.”

            “Yeah ‘cause I figured we’d be able to make it _fun._ ” He stressed. Webster smirked.

            “Fine then. We’ll make it fun.” So they got another cart and sped down the aisles, running then jumping up into the carriage and trying to use their bodies to steer. They almost ran into Skip when he turned a corner but he quickly jumped out of the way of their carts.

            “What are you guys doing?” He asked, more displeased that he was missing out on what appeared to be fun.

            “Grocery shopping.” Joe said, rolling past him and grabbing a box of peanut butter crackers off a shelf, dropping it into his cart.

            “Well maybe you should hurry up. Winters and Nixon already have all their shit and are waiting at the check out.” So they grabbed the last of their items and went over to meet them at the register.

            “I don’t remember a family-size snack pack being on the list.” Nixon said as Webster dropped it onto the conveyor belt.

            “Well if there wasn’t, there should’ve been.” Webster said simply. When they got back to the house everyone came out and helped them unload the food. They were all pretty beat once that was done so they all lounged in the living room, watching cable television until they one by one drifted upstairs and went to sleep.

            Webster and Joe were woken up Sunday morning by Skinny loudly throwing the door open and saying,

            “Get up bitches and get in your bathing suits. We’re going swimming.”

            “Skinny, let the little lovebirds sleep! It’s not like we don’t have all day!” Guarnere called from somewhere down the hall.

            “No.” Skinny whined like a petulant child. “They kept me up all night with their sex, I get to wake them up early.”

            “Whoa, whoa.” Webster said, sitting up and rubbing at his eyes, “We did _not_ have sex last night.”

            “Oh.” Skinny said, “Then one of you had an interesting dream.” And then he took off down the hall.

            “Is it too late to kill Speirs and Lip and take their room?” Joe grumbled, face still pressed into his pillow.

            “You wouldn’t want to kill Lip, he’s too nice. And I’d dread to see what would happen to you if you tried to go after Speirs.” Joe just groaned and tried to nuzzle further under the blankets. “We should probably get up before he comes back in here.” Webster said.

            “Yeah, okay.” Joe said, sitting up himself. They got on their trunks and found the house was already mostly empty. Everyone was down by the lake.

            “Dude! Dude!” Luz ran over excitedly as soon as their feet hit the sand. “There is a water trampoline! A trampoline in the water! That is three times as cool as a trampoline on land! With a land trampoline, when you jump off you land on the ground, potentially breaking bones and having problems with your insurance. With a water trampoline, you jump off and have a fun time splashing into the water around you.”

            “Thank you, Luz,” Joe said awkwardly, “for the fun explanation on the differences between water and land trampolines.”

            “No problem, dude.” He turned his head to look behind the two of them, then pushed through them and ran forward towards Malarkey, who had just exited the back door of the house. “Malark, there’s a water trampoline!” He yelled.

            “Wow.” Webster said, as they walked further down the beach to where Nixon had brought a cooler full of drinks. “He really likes trampolines.”

            “Uh huh.” Joe said. They looked out as they took off their shirts and could see Winter, Nixon, Babe, and Toye all standing on the trampoline about a hundred feet out. There were heads in the water too around it, but they couldn’t see who it was. “Come on, let’s go out there.” Joe said, walking over to the water. Webster went up next to him and then tentatively put their feet in.

            “Hey, it’s not that bad.” Webster said.

            “Great!” Webster heard a voice yell behind him, he looked around and suddenly Skinny was coming at him full force. He slammed into him and brought both their bodies splashing into the water.

            “I’M GOING TO KILL YOU.” Webster yelled as he stood up, sand in his hair.

            “You have to catch me first.” Skinny teased, then started swimming out to the trampoline.

            “Goddammit.” Webster muttered, trying to shake all of the wet sand off of him.

            “Come on, it’ll come off once you get in the water.” Joe said, then started swimming out there himself. Webster stood up to his shins in the water for a moment longer.

            “Goddammit.” He said again, then went in deeper. Once he got out to the trampoline he found the ladder and climbed his way up. Skinny was bouncing near the far side, his eyes lit up alarmed when he saw Webster coming for him.

            “Oh shit, geez Webster, Web, Webby, my main man, my dear friend David. We’re buds right? We’re cool?” Webster got to him and stopped, then sighed.

            “Yeah we’re cool.” Skinny visibly brightened.

            “Great, ‘cause I was thinking-“ And that was when Webster shoved him backwards and he fell off the trampoline and into the green water below. When his head emerged again he stayed there, treading. He looked up at Webster.

            “Alright, you got me. We’re even now, okay?”

            “Yeah we’re even.” Webster agreed.

            The boys all played out on the trampoline until the sun was high in the sky. When it was around noon they swam back and ate sandwiches on the beach from a cooler Lipton had brought out for them. After that they played chicken in the shallower water. Gene and Babe were the ruling champions.

            “How are such skinny boys so good at that?” Guarnere asked as he collapsed in the sand after his bout against them with Toye.

            “Doc’s got that crazy Cajun magic thing going on, it makes them win.” Skip said.

            “Well that’s cheating.” Guarnere sighed.

            When everyone was beat they headed back inside and got sand all over the furniture, and someone came up with the idea of playing charades. They split into teams and went at it.

            “Ummm, a traffic cone, a dunce, THE EIFFEL TOWER!” Malarkey guessed desperately as Skinny moved around with his hands making a pyramid shape in front of his face. The timer they set up on Toye’s phone went off.

            “I was a fucking Egyptian, you idiots!” Skinny immediately exploded. Toye “ahh’d” in understanding. “Jesus Christ, the Eiffel tower? Really? A traffic cone? Who would’ve written that on a piece of paper?”

            “Good point.” Malarkey said.

            “Well zero points for Team Cocksuck.” Winters said, keeping track on a piece of paper.

            “I’m still not too fond of the whole ‘letting the other team name your team’ thing.” Skip said.

            “Shut up,” Nixon said, “it’s Team Genital Herpes’s turn.”

            “I’ll go!” Babe grabbed a slip of paper from the hat and read it. Toye started the timer.

            “Okay, movie.”

            “Two words.”

            “Cold…. Cold case.”

            “Vampire Diaries!”

            “Those are both TV shows!”

            “Ice Age!”

            “Yes!” Babe said, slamming the paper down on the table. Everyone on his team high-fived.

            “Are you kidding me? They got that but you guys couldn’t get an Egyptian?” Skinny complained.

            “Oh get over it, Sisk.” Luz said.


	15. So, You Know Richard Nixon?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eugene's birthday, and a movie marathon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yet more fluff. This week is basically all fluff.

Monday was Eugene’s birthday. Webster went downstairs to find Babe attempting to make pancakes in the kitchen. There was powder all over the counter and the boy himself.

            “Alright, Babe. Why don’t you give me that… and you find the syrup and… set a place at the table for the birthday boy or something.” Webster suggested. Babe nodded and handed him the mixing bowl. Webster looked down at it.

            “JOE!” He yelled after a moment. “I NEED YOUR HELP WITH SOMETHING.” After the pancakes were successfully made by someone who could actually be in a kitchen without lighting things on fire Babe went up and woke Gene, then brought him down by the hand. Nixon, Winters, and Speirs had gone earlier while Joe was baking to get some decorations and had set them up around the house.

            “Happy sixteenth birthday, Doc.” Winters greeted him.

            “Presents! Presents!” Skinny had shouted excitedly after they had all had breakfast.

            “Skinny, you do realize the presents are for Gene, not you.” Guarnere pointed out.

            “I am aware. But why can’t I share in the excitement?” They gathered in the living room and everybody put their respective gifts in a pile. Gene tore into them, egged on by his boyfriend. The first one was a stethoscope from Luz.

            “A real doctor would have his own one.” Luz said.

            “Thanks, George.” Gene said. The next present was a Castle box set from Lipton and Speirs.

            “Whoa, do couples get to give joint gifts?” Joe said, looking over at Webster. “I didn’t know that.”

            “It was expensive.” Speirs said, “We both paid for half.” The third gift was a big package of peppermint oreos, Gene’s favorite, and a two liter jug of Hawaiian Punch, from Nixon. Malarkey got him three books, two novels and one med guide. The pile of gifts diminished until the only one left was Babe’s dutifully saved for last. Eugene opened the card taped to the side of the bag.

            “Happy Birthday B.” It read. “You are by far my favorite half-Cajun, medical student. And now that you’re sixteen you can get a car and we can have sex in it.”

            “TMI.” Skip said.

            “I hope you like your present, Gene. Love, Babe.”

            Everyone awed. Gene dug into the bag and pulled out a fuzzy turtle onesie. Then he reached further down and pulled out a green military style helmet, there was a red cross on the side.

            “What is this for?” He asked.

            “It’s for tonight?” Babe winked. Skinny was sitting next to Webster and Joe on the sofa and leaned over to talk to them.

            “Yeah thanks, by the way, for taking the room with me. I would not want to be sleeping in the same bedroom as them tonight. What with the birthday sex that will most likely be occurring.” He whispered.

            “Yeah, anytime.” Joe replied.

            Later that night Toye and Luz dragged up the karaoke machine they had found in the basement. Gene had put on the onesie and was sitting in the loveseat with Babe wedged in next to him.

            “I believe the birthday boy should sing a song with his significant other first.” Malarkey said.

            “I’VE GOT THIS. I’VE GOT THIS, I’LL PICK THE SONG.” Babe yelled, running over to the machine. He pulled up the song he wanted on his phone and plugged it in, then took one of the microphones and handed the other one to Gene. You be part numero uno.” He said. Once the opening notes of the song started everyone instantly knew what was going on.

            “I really can’t stay.” Eugene sang.

            “But baby it’s cold outside.”

            That song was Gene and Babe’s song, after Babe desperately sang it at him one time the year before. When Gene had come into his house all chilly from the falling snow, his nose and ears pink and his hands shaking. Babe wouldn’t let him leave because of the storm, and because they were not yet dating and he wanted to change that.

            “I’ve got to go away.”

            “But baby it’s cold outside.”

            Once the song was over Luz and Skip went next. They went musical with Luz as Cosette and Skip as Marius.

            “A HEART FULL OF LOVE. A HEART FULL OF SONG, I’M DOING EVERYTHING ALL WRONG.”

            Nixon sang Tainted Love and kept trying to pull Winters over to sing with him. The red-head refused until finally giving in and grabbing the second microphone.

            “DON’T TOUCH ME PLEASE. I CANNOT STAND THE WAY YOU TEASE. OH, I LOVE YOU BUT YOU HURT ME SO.”

            The boys all took turns and had a great time, singing songs late into the night. And when they finally went to sleep, they made sure their doors were shut so they didn’t have to hear any noise that might be coming from Babe and Gene’s room.

            Webster woke up Tuesday morning when he heard Skinny gasp loudly from his bed to the side. It was still dark outside, but Webster sat up anyway, looking over at his friend. Skinny’s eyes were wide open.

            “Please tell me you’re not jerking off in bed.” Webster said blandly. Skinny turned to look at him.

            “What? No! Despite what you may think of me I would not stoop so low.” He said. “No, I just realized something monumental. So you know Richard Nixon?”

            “The president? I know _of_ him.”

            “Well think about it. _Richard…..Nixon. Richard_ Winters and Lewis _Nixon._ ” He paused for dramatic effect, or maybe expecting some sort of reaction from Webster. “It’s a sign!” He said.

            “A sign of what?” Webster asked.

            “A sign they’re meant to be together!”

            “You did it.” Joe mumbled sarcastically, from where he was lying curled up in the bed. Up until that point they had both thought he was asleep. “You discovered the Winnix conspiracy. You’ve solved the puzzle. Now can we all go back the fuck to sleep?”

            When they woke up for real they went downstairs to discover it was pouring outside. That made it the official movie day. Everybody stayed in their pajamas, Eugene in his new turtle onesie. They snuggled around the TV and Joe made hot cocoa with marshmallows. They put in Ghostbusters, then Alien, then Aliens. It was somewhere in the middle of The Usual Suspects when the first marshmallow was thrown.

            “KEYSER SOZE” Luz yelled at the TV as the man on the screen said the same words a few moments later.

            “Hey man, can you shut up I’m trying to watch this.” Toye whispered, aggravated.

            “I’ve seen this like a hundred times.” Luz shrugged.

            “Yeah well I haven’t, so shut up.” Luz went quiet for a few minutes, but then he started up again.

            “This is my favorite part coming up. ‘Give me the keys, you-“ And just like that a marshmallow flew out of nowhere and hit him right on the face. Joe had discovered when making the cocoa that they didn’t have enough marshmallows for the amount everyone seemed to want on their beverage. So he sent Nixon to get some more. Nixon got to the store and, upon realizing a bag was only a dollar, just bought everyone their own bag. That meant that everyone had their own large marshmallow supply next to them during the movies. That meant that once the first one went flying, and Luz, not knowing who had thrown it but suspecting Toye, returned fire, it was all out war.

            The boys were pelting marshmallows at each other, using pillows as shields. Babe, who had fallen asleep on Eugene’s shoulder, was hit right in the forehead, causing him to blink open his eyes aggressively.

            “Who threw that?” He growled. All of the boys pointed at someone else. “I swear to god, if another one of those hits me…” He said, putting his head back down on his boyfriend and closing his eyes. That brought an abrupt end to the marshmallow battle.

They finished the Usual Suspects, Toye and everyone who hadn’t seen it before were blown away by the surprise ending. Before they put in The Avengers, Winters ordered Chinese food for them. They ate it in the living room and this time, since they had all seen it, quoted the movie quite loudly.


	16. Seven Billion Smiles, And Yours Is My Favorite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A boat escapade and flower crowns.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adorableness in this chapter, and some smut. That's right people. I wrote more porn. Its very little though because I am awful at lengthy porn.

On Wednesday it was beautiful so they went back out to the lake. They were just kind of lying around, they played a few games of football and ultimate Frisbee, they swam and went on the trampoline, they slept in the sun. At one point Malarkey, Skip, and Nixon went out in the small rowboat that had been stowed in the shed behind the house. Nixon begged Winters to go with them but Winters’ response was,

“Heck no, that thing has been in storage for years. I don’t trust it at all.” Luckily Malarkey, Skip and Nixon had no sense of self preservation so they were perfectly fine dragging it along the sand, pushing it into the water, hopping in, and taking off. Webster watched them row across the lake from where he was sitting in the shallow water on the shore with Joe, Skinny, and Winters.

“Hey do you think there’s any extra blankets around the house I could use?” Joe asked Winters. Winters thought about it,

“There might be some in the closet… if there isn’t you’re just going to have to ask people if they have any they aren’t using.” He said.

“Alright,” Joe nodded, “it’s ‘cause of this loser here.” He jerked his head towards Webster.

“Excuse me.” Webster replied, putting his hand to his chest in mock hurt.

“Yeah, excuse yourself, I was freezing last night because you always feel the need to tug the fucking blankets over yourself.”

“Well it’s not my fault you’re so skinny you can’t create your own body heat.”

“True, but it is your fault I’m left out in the cold every night.”

“Yeah, Nixon and I have the same problem. He’s a natural blanket hog.” Winter said. Webster and Joe immediately stopped fighting and turned to him, Skinny turned as well.

“What did you just say?” Skinny asked.

“I said Nixon hogs blankets as well…” Winter repeated himself, confused.

“Yeah but… you guys got the two singles…”

“Yeah but we just pushed them together. And I meant at home as well.”

“You and Nixon are…dating?” Skinny looked as if he was so close to winning the lottery, as if they were calling the numbers and all of his had been right so far but there was still one more to go.

“Yeah.” Winters said as if it was obvious, like they should already know. “We’ve been dating since seventh grade.” And Skinny’s last number was called.

“YES!” He said, springing up from the sand. “YES I KNEW IT. OH GOD THEY OWE ME MONEY, SO MANY PEOPLE OWE ME MONEY.” He looked out towards the boat in the distance, where they could see Malarkey, Skip, and Nixon’s silhouettes. “MALARK!” He cupped his hands and screamed out. Malarkey’s head turned. “MALARK!” He yelled again. Now Malarkey stood up, leaning toward the beach as if to hear better.

“WHAT?” He called back.

“WINTERS AND NIXON ARE BONING!”

“WHAT?”

“I SAID WINTERS-“ But Malarkey’s body had leaned forward too far and he went splashing down into the water below the boat. They watched the body rock intensely, unsure if it was going to steady itself or not. It did, but only after flipping over and sending the other two boys into the water as well.

“Oh shit.” Skinny said. Winters stood up, Joe and Webster were too busy laughing. The three boys swam in, and came up on the shore, gasping tiredly.

“Sorry about your boat, man.” Skip said. Winters shrugged indifferently,

“No one uses it anymore.”

“So what were you trying to say to me?” Malarkey asked.

“Nixon and Winters are boning.” Skinny said. Malarkey’s eyes widened and he looked between the two boys.

“Well, fuck.” Guess I owe you some money then.”

Later that night the news had been shared with everyone. Guarnere was pretty certain Lipton and Speirs already knew, judging by their lack of response when they were told, but other than them everyone was ecstatic. Joe decided he was going to make dinner. Webster offered to help him but after causing the water in the pot to boil-over, Joe told him he would be much more helpful just handing him objects that he needed. Webster was more than happy to do that.

Thursday was another beautiful day. Winters told them about this grassy hill that if you walked further down the beach you would end up at, so they decided to pack a picnic-type lunch, and go down there for the day. When they got there they sat together for while and ate their lunches. Lipton had packed sandwiches and watermelon, and potato chips for everyone. Then they just kind of lounged around. Webster and Joe walked further up the hill so they were out of view of the other boys, then Webster lied down, put his head back, and shut his eyes.

He was the most comfortable he’d been, ever. The grass was cool on his skin, his closed eyelids were red from the sun. The wind was blowing softly, bringing up the other boys’ voices from lower on the hill. His arms were brought up so his hands were pillowing the back of his head. It was warm days like this that made him really glad to be alive.

He was lying like that, drifting in and out of a wonderful nap when he felt something rustle his hair. It was only there for a split second, and could’ve very well been the wind. Still, after it was gone he could feel warmth near his face, as if there was something being held near it, but not quite touching it. After a moment that too was gone. He sat up and blinked open his eyes.

“Joe?” After his eyes adjusted to the brightness he saw Joe sitting cross-legged a few feet away, his hands moving in the grass, doing something Webster couldn’t make out.

“Yeah?” Joe replied, looking over.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing.” He said hastily, a slight blush in his cheeks. Webster moved so he was on his knees, then crawled over to Joe. Joe covered the thing he was doing in the grass with his hands.

“Oh come on,” Webster said softly, “show me.” Joe sighed and removed his hands. Webster wasn’t sure what he was expecting, so he was relatively shocked when in Joe’s fingers was a crown. The flowers it was made out of were the same blue as Webster’s eyes. Webster was pretty sure his mouth was open.

“Is that for me?” He asked, Joe nodded. Webster took it gently from him and put it on. He grinned, “How do I look?” Joe just laughed, “Seriously, though, where did you learn to do this?”

“I used to make them for my sisters a lot.” He shrugged, “It’s stupid.” In a flash Webster had pushed Joe down by his shoulders and moved to settle his body on top of him. His forearms were braced on either side of Joe’s head, holding himself up. Their faces were inches apart.

“It’s not stupid. It’s fucking awesome. I love it.” And he placed a kiss on Joe’s mouth. Then just as fast as he got on him, he got off and was running down the hill.

“Guys! Look what Liebgott made me!”

Joe groaned and got up to follow him.

The flower crown was a hit. The boys all laughed and loved it.

“Why don’t you ever make me one?” Babe jokingly asked Eugene.

“Dude, you gotta show me how to make one.” Luz complained, picking some daisies around his and failing to weave them together.

“It’s an adept skill,” Joe teased “one learned over time and-“

“I think I got it!” Skinny said, holding up a circlet of flowers that then proceeded to fall apart.

“Yeah, sure you do.” Skip retorted from where his head was lying on Malarkey’s lap. Webster sat in the grass and watched Joe show everybody how to weave the flowers together to make the crown. He was suddenly filled with a very deep sense of fondness. That was his boyfriend right there with the sun-bitten cheeks and the devil-may-care smile that could light the sky ablaze. He could touch him whenever he wanted, and kiss him whenever he wanted, and right now he _really_ wanted to.

“Hey, Joe.” He spoke up, “I’m tired, do you want to come back to the house with me?”

“But everybody’s out here.” Joe said, still looking down at Toye’s hands, that were trying their best to tie the stems together from the flowers he had.

“Exactly.” Webster said. Joe’s fingers paused and he looked over at Webster, understanding.

“Oh.” He said, “Oh, okay.” He stood up, dusting dirt off of his pants. “Okay, yeah, let’s go back to the house.” Once they got back and walked through the rear door Webster grabbed Joe’s wrist and pulled him through the living room, up the stairs, and into their bedroom. Joe closed the door behind them. Webster wrapped his arms around Joe’s waist and pulled him in, pressing their mouths together.

The kisses were slow and deep. Webster trailed them down from his lips onto his neck, only pulling back to tug Joe’s t-shirt over his head. Joe moved to the bed and when Webster sat down he straddled him, his knees on either side of Webster’s hips.

“I think you are my favorite person.” Joe moaned as Webster started sucking on his collarbone. Webster just chuckled. Joe put his hands on either side of Webster’s face and pulled him back so he could look in his eyes. Webster was still wearing the flower crown. “I’m serious.” Joe said. “You’re my favorite.” Webster knew this was most likely the closest to an “I love you” as Joe was ever going to get, so he grinned and kissed him on the lips.

He pushed the boy back a little bit so he could unbutton and tug off his jeans, only pausing to put his arms up so Joe could get his shirt off. He chucked the clothing onto Skinny’s bed.

“Condoms and lube are in the front pouch of my bag.” Joe whispered in Webster’s ear. Webster nodded and reached down to the bag shoved under the bed to get them. Meanwhile Joe pulled his pants down and dropped them on the floor so they were both just in their boxers.

There was a sort of warmness in the air, a comfortable feeling that dimmed the room as Webster and Joe took off the last of their clothing. Joe sat on Webster’s lap as the boy slicked his finger and inserted it into him, then a second, then a third. Joe’s breath hitched and his fingers scratched at Webster’s back when Webster removed his fingers and slowly thrust upward into him.

Webster’s hands were on his hips and Joe’s head was on Webster’s shoulder, his breathing ragged, interrupted by aroused moans. Joe wrapped his skinny fingers around his own erection and shakily jerked himself off.

When they had both finished they collapsed against each other onto the bed. Gasping tiredly in bliss. Webster took off the condom, then tied it and threw it in the trash. He laid back down and turned to look over at Joe. His face was flushed, the flowers stuck in his sweaty hair bringing out the bright blue in his eyes. He smiled a sleepy smile.

“Seven billion smiles,” Joe said, bringing up his fingers to touch Webster’s lips, “and yours is my favorite.”

When they put their clothes on later and went back downstairs the other boys were there, gathered in the living room, watching TV. Skinny looked up at them when they walked in.

“My bed had better be fucking untouched.” He said.


	17. I Know What I'm About, Son

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diner and candy store.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been so very busy so this chapter is kinda short. I'll have more time to write tomorrow though.

The next day was Friday, which was their last day at the house. They were snacking on bacon Toye had cooked, one of the only things he could cook because “you just throw it into a pan and keep it there until it smells delicious” when Winters suggested they go out into the nearby town. Besides a few trips to the nearby market to replenish some supplies, they hadn’t really left the area around the house all week.

“There’s a really great diner on the edge of town.” He explained. “They get a lot of tourists I guess and the food is amazing.”

“I’m down with that.” Luz said. So they packed into their cars and drove into town. Skinny convinced Webster to wear his flower crown when they went out.

“This is the cutest place ever!” Babe announced after they parked in the small lot and walked into the diner, the door chiming behind them. It was a quaint little restaurant. The walls were papered with old car designs, there were movie posters all along the walls, with names like Audrey Hepburn, James Dean. There was a jukebox in the corner, currently playing What’s New Pussycat.

“Hiya, doll! How many are in your party?” The hostess, a middle-aged woman with a red bob asked.

“Fourteen.” Winters told her. “But we don’t have to sit together, some booths near each other would be fine.” She nodded and grabbed a load of menus, then walked off, they all followed her. She brought them to some booths and the sat down. They took up three tables in all, Lipton, Speirs, Luz, Malarkey and Skip in one, Winters, Nixon, Guarnere, Toye, and Skinny in the other, and Webster, Joe, Babe, and Gene were in the last one.

“What are you doing?” Joe asked Babe, who was looking down at his phone and smiling.

“Beating Nixon.” Babe said. Five seconds later there was a yell from the other table.

“Goddammit! In _one round_? Fuck you, you fucking trivia god, fuck!”

Webster laughed,

“How do you still get people to play against you?” Babe shrugged.

“Not a lot of them do, I have to play mostly anonymous people.”

“Poor you.” Eugene said. The waitress came around then. She stopped at their table first because it was the closest one. She had longer blonde hair that was curled and a flowing skirt to her knees that had a poodle on it.

“Hi!” She greeted them enthusiastically. “I’m Grace, and I’ll be your server today.” She looked around at all of them. “Oh my god.” She said when she saw Webster. “That is adorable.” She pointed to his flower crown. “Did your girlfriend make it for you?”

“No, I don’t have a girlfriend.” Webster said, oblivious as always to people flirting with him. Joe was on the inside of the booth and he leaned forward, to get a better look at the waitress.

“I made it.” He said. “I’m his boyfriend. Me. I am. We’re dating.”

“Okay…” The girl said awkwardly. “Can I get you guys some drinks?”

“Coke, please.” Webster said.

“Water.”

“Coke.”

“Coke as well.” She nodded as she wrote down their orders and then went on to the next table. Webster listened as Toye yelled at Guarnere for not being able to decide what he wanted to drink.

“Well, I don’t know what they have.”

“Yes you do! The drinks are right there on the back of the menu!”

“Well, I don’t know what’s good and what’s not.”

“Just get a soda then! You know which ones of those you like!”

“Yeah, but they have a raspberry lemonade, that sounds cool.”

“Then get the raspberry lemonade!”

“But what if I don’t like it?”

“GODDAMMIT BILL ORDER A DRINK.”

Webster looked over at Joe,

“He does realize Guarnere is only doing that to fuck with him, right?” Webster said, Joe shrugged. They got their drinks and ordered their food. Once they had gotten their food, they were trying to come up with things they could do after, besides just going back to the house.

“I mean what else is there?” Joe asked over the back of his chair to Winters.

“There are some little tourist shops, there’s a candy shop-.”

“CANDY?” Skinny yelled. “You mean like one of those shops where you take the plastic bag and fill it with all the candy in the world and then they weigh it and charge you?”

“Yeah, that kind.” Winters said.

“Okay, guys, we’re going to the candy shop.” Skinny decided.

“Okay. Yeah. Let’s do that.” So they finished their food and piled back into their cars. Skip took charge of the radio in Webster’s car.

“YOU LOOK SO PERFECT STANDING THERE IN MY AMERICAN APPAREL UNDERWEAR, AND I KNOW NOW-.”

“Please no 5sos.” Joe said. Skip gasped and turned to Malarkey.

“Why does no one like 5sos?” He asked his friend, Malarkey shrugged. “Luz likes 5sos.” Skip said, settling into his seat, crossing his arms, and pouting.

“Well, Luz is in Speirs’s car with them and I highly doubt he would let you guys listen to it either.” Webster pointed out. Skip sighed dramatically, was quiet for a moment, then did it again. Joe groaned.

“Fine, put it back on.”

Skip smiled.

“YOUR LIPSTICK STAIN IS A WORK OF ART, I GOT YOUR NAME TATTOOED IN AN ARROWHEART.”

They found a parking lot, and left their cars there, then walked over to the candy store. Skinny was in heaven.

“They have gummy everything here! Bears, worm, fish, lobsters, feet, little soda bottles. Holy fuck, are those sour gummy frogs?” And he was off again, shoveling candies into his plastic bag. Everyone else was slower going around, and their bags were not really as full as his when they paid.

“You just spent fifteen dollars on concentrated diabetes.” Speirs said to Skinny as he purchased his four-pound bag of candy.

“Maybe I did, Sparky. But I also spent fifteen dollars on chewy goodness. It’s all the same to me. I know what I’m about, son.”


	18. This Isn't The Parent Trap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drunken bets and card games.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some things that happen in this are inspired by true events, things that have gone down late at night at my beach house.

They went back to the house, gathered around the long table in the dining room and played cards. They played BS, and pres, and raided the kitchen to find enough utensils to play spoons. Not all of them were familiar with the game, so some had to be taught. Luz did not catch on that quickly.

“Four of a kind, I win!” He shouted joyously, holding up his hand, then he looked down in horror, realizing his mistake, “No, wait, GRAB A SPOON!” Everybody dove onto the table and wrestled for the silverware. As the game went on they all tried to be as nonchalant as possible when grabbing a spoon, so that no one would notice and they would keep passing cards around.

At one point Skip got four of a kind, slowly reached his hand onto the table, and grabbed a spoon without anyone seeing. He nudged Malarkey next to him with his elbow and showed him that he had a spoon. Malark grabbed one as well and they both kept passing cards around.

“Ah yes,” Malarkey remarked, “much cards, many spoons, such fun.” Skip started laughing and that was when the other boys noticed they both had spoons and they all raced to grab one. It was starting to get late when Babe suggested that they start making bets with the games.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Eugene asked.

“Like we play another game of spoons, and whoever gets out each round has to do something.” The ginger explained.

“Something like what?” Webster said. Babe thought about it.

“Like, whoever gets out this round has to give the person to the right of them a lap dance.”

“I’m in.” Skinny said immediately.

“Wait.” Toye said, “I think I might have something that could make this a lot more fun.” He pushed back his chair and sprinted upstairs. He returned thirty seconds later with a full bottle of liquor in each hand.

“What the hell.” Nixon said as Toye put the bottles down on the table. “Why did you even bring these?”

“I thought we might want to get plastered one night, so I best be prepared.”

“Well you weren’t the only one, wait one second.” Nixon got up and ran upstairs. He returned with his own bottle of whiskey and a bag full of clinking shot glasses. Winters dropped his head into his hands and sighed.

“I checked your bag for alcohol before we left.” He grumbled.

“I hid it in your bag.” Nixon grinned. Winters sighed again but allowed Nixon to line up shot glasses for everyone, and when his was handed to him he downed it in a second. Everybody drank, even though they were underage, they were no strangers to it. Many Friday nights had been spent getting drunk in Luz’s basement. Nixon filled everyone’s glasses again, and they took their second shots, then they started the round.

They passed the cards around the table at a fast pace, nobody talking. That went on for a few minutes, until Joe’s hand reached out in a flash and plucked a spoon out of the line. That set off a chain reaction of everyone grabbing at a spoon. When it calmed down Skip was the only one spoonless.

“Goddammit.” He said. Toye was to the right of him.

“Come on, man. You have to do it.” Malarkey laughed. Skip sighed,

“Someone pour me another shot first.”

The game went on and as they got drunker the bets got crazier. Skip did his lap dance on Toye, cheered on by the other boys, except Babe who complained,

“That was garbage! There was no style to it!” Nixon got out next, he had to do an impression of the person two seats to the left of him, which just happened to be Speirs.

“Hello, I’m Ron.” Nixon imitated Ron’s deep voice. “I have sociopathic tendencies and get off on genuinely terrifying everyone I meet. Except Lip. I tone down my sadisticness for Lip because I looooove him.” Then Nix turned to Winters, “If he comes into our room in the middle of the night and tries to smother me in my sleep, please stop him.”

The next dare was the person would have to do a body shot off of whoever was sitting across from them. Skinny got out and Webster groaned. Skinny laughed,

“Come on, Webby, take off the shirt. I get to lick salt off of those abs.”

“How is this a dare for him?” Webster complained. Nevertheless the shirt came off and they pushed the spoons to the side so he could lie on the table. Malarkey shoved a lime wedge in his mouth and Joe sprinkled salt on his stomach. Skinny took a shot, then leaned over him, using his tongue to lap up all the salt on his skin, and his teeth to take the lime from him. Webster tried not to move from the ticklish feeling.

“How about next one the person who gets out has to let the person to the right of them do their makeup.” Babe suggested.

“Do we have makeup?” Winters asked.

“I saw some in the dresser in our room.” Lipton said. “I assume it was your mom’s?” So Luz ended up getting out and Guarnere got to drunkenly smear makeup all over his face.

“Do I look pretty?” The boy asked once his friend had finished. Everyone laughed. Lipton got out and had to drink a horrible concoction made for him by Joe. Webster got out and had to call up an ex boyfriend and sing his own rendition of Creepin’ Up On You. Babe had to walk across the street to the next-door neighbor, knock on the door, and ask if they’d seen his goldfish.

Toye had to do a strip tease to Britney Spears’s Toxic, standing on the table. Joe had to fill his mouth as much as he could with whiskey soaked marshmallows and then sing the national anthem as best as he could remember it. Winters got out and had to let Nixon shampoo his hair with chocolate sauce. Malarkey got out and had to take off his shirt and wear the bra that Babe had found in the closet in his and Eugene’s room. When Guarnere got out Babe lit up.

“Make him kiss Toye, he has to kiss Toye!” Babe announced. Guarnere shrugged and grabbed his friend by the back of his neck, bringing him in and smashing their lips together.

“Oh god, are they using tongue?” Joe whispered in Webster’s ear. Guarnere pulled back and smiled at everyone, his hand still around Toye’s neck.

“Ya happy?” He asked. It was almost midnight when it was finally down to the final two. Eugene and Speirs.

“We have to do something big for this one.” Skinny said. They all thought about it for a minute.

“I’ve got it!” Malarkey announced. “The loser has to strip down naked, run outside, swim to the trampoline and do a flip off of it.” They were all really excited by that idea. The round started and everyone watched the two boys staring at their cards intensely. There was one spoon in the middle of the table. After some time, Speirs’s hand shot out and he grabbed the spoon from its spot. Eugene groaned.

“Ohhhhh, looks like Doc here’s gonna be skinny dipping for us.” Skip laughed.

            “Do I have to?” He asked. Babe nodded at him,

            “Sorry b, but yeah, you really do.” Nixon poured him another shot, which he happily drank. The boys all followed him as he walked outside, went down to the beach and started taking off his clothes. He left them in the sand and then walked over to the water, his body illuminated by the moonlight. He started wading in, then swam out to the trampoline. They all watched him climb up, chuckling quietly. They could only see the outline of him as he stood at the edge. He put a fist in the air and screamed,

            “VIVE LA REVOLUTION” Then jumped up once, did a front flip in the air, and splashed into the water. Everyone shouted and cheered as if they were at a rock concert. He started swimming back.

            “Quick, someone grab his clothes.” Skip said.

            “This isn’t The Parent Trap.” Babe retorted, standing guard over his boyfriend’s things. Gene walked up out of the water, hair dripping, shivering slightly. Winters had run inside to grab him a towel, and handed it to him. He wrapped it around his waist and they walked back inside. They were lounging in the living room, the lights dim when Luz’s voice rang out.

            “Guys?” He said.

            “Yeah?” They all said back.

            “This has been the best.”


	19. And Thus The Shit Has Hit The Fan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> literally the chapter title, shit hits the fan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished writing it all, I think. Yay!

It was only a week after vacation when Joe’s band was playing at Lindberg’s Pizza again. It was Saturday night, Webster was working, and he didn’t hesitate telling everyone he served that that was his boyfriend singing up on the stage. Once the show ended Joe hopped off and headed over to where Webster was standing, talking with Talbert. Skip was right behind him.

“So do we get free pizza since our lead singer is dating one of your workers?” He asked. Floyd gave him a look.

“You guys got free pizza even before they were dating.”

“Yeah but do we get _more_ free pizza?”

Meanwhile Joe and Webster were standing close together and Joe was asking him in a low voice if he had liked the show. Webster grinned in response, and Joe was moving in. Planting a kiss on his lips, Webster brought a hand around the back of his head, moving to deepen it. Just then he heard a shattering behind him and Floyd say,   

“Oh, Ma’am.” He figured Floyd could handle some person breaking a glass or something, so he put his attention back into Joe, until he heard a familiar voice say,

“David.”

Webster’s blood turned to ice. He jumped back from Joe as if he’d been scalded and turned around. His mother was standing at a table, a glass shattered at her feet. It felt to Webster as if everything had stopped, all the people in the restaurant had paused and were staring at him, but in reality the only people paying any attention were Joe, Skip, and Floyd. His mother’s eyes looked broken, distraught, angry, disgusted.

“Mom.” He said, his voice high and scared. His mom opened her mouth as if to say something, but looked around, realizing she was in public. So instead she said,

“We’re going home. _Now.”_ Webster nodded slowly and went to walk to her, he felt something grab his arm and turned back to see Joe with a grip on him.

“Web, you don’t have to go.” He said softly.

“Joe, it’s my mom. Yes, I do. Don’t worry.” He said with an unconvincing smile. “I’ll call you later.” Then he pulled his arm free and went over to his mom. Floyd was sweeping up the glass around her and looked over at Webster when he walked by.

“Floyd, I need to-“ Webster started but Floyd just nodded at him,

“It’s fine. Go.” He said. Webster nodded at him and walked out of the restaurant. He drove home in his own car, and was very tempted to not, to take the wrong turn on the way back and just not go home at all. But he knew he would have to go back sooner or later and he might as well get this over with. His mom’s car was already there when he pulled into the driveway. He shut off the car and walked inside. His mother and father were both waiting in the kitchen. He could tell she’d already told him.

“Tell me it was a joke.” His mom said, tears in her eyes. “Tell me you were kissing that boy as some sort of joke.” And Webster could’ve done that, but he didn’t.

“It wasn’t a joke.” He shook his head. “Mom, Dad,” He looked between the two of them, “I should’ve told you earlier, but… I’m gay.” He watched his dad’s fist swing at him and didn’t have time to do anything to avoid getting hit. It slammed right into his nose, he heard a crack and pain explode from his face. He stumbled back and put a hand up to hold his nose, he could feel the blood dripping down his face.

“Goddammit.” His father mumbled, wrapping his hand insanely tight around Webster’s arm and tugging him along through the house. He dragged him up the stairs and shoved him up the ladder into his own room. “You stay up there until I fucking tell you to come down!” He screamed, then slammed the ladder up and kept the rope down.

Webster was up there for almost four hours. He turned on his laptop but they’d shut off the Wi-Fi. He pulled out his phone but they’d shut down the service. He threw it onto his bed angrily. So much for calling Joe. He sat on his bed and tried to calm his breathing. He felt dizzy. His hands were shaking as he used tissues to stop his nose from bleeding.

The problem with his panic attacks was that he never knew when he was having them. He could never figure it out until after they were over. He was hyperventilating, he knew that, but his brain couldn’t think past the prominent problem. This time it was that his parents knew he was gay. His parents had found out and his dad had punched him in the face and locked him up in his room and he had no way of contacting anyone.

His breathing quickened even more and he felt the edges of his vision go blurry. He grabbed at his trashcan and threw up in it. He curled up on his bed and his last thought before he passed out was that his father had once told him he didn’t condone violence because fighting was for people that weren’t smart enough to use their words to win their battles.

When the ladder was finally pulled back down his dad came up.

“Pack your stuff.” He said gruffly, “We’re moving back to Boston.”

“What?” Webster asked, shocked.

“We’re moving back to Boston. It’s this fucking queer city, it’s making you all confused.”

Webster shook his head, and almost laughed.

“It’s not the city, Dad. I was a queer in Boston.”

“Shut up!” His father shouted at him, “Goddammit. You’re mother is downstairs crying, did you know that? You broke her heart.”

“I think you broke my nose.” Webster countered. His father just glared at him, as if he were some monster, some abomination, some thing that had possessed his son. His perfect son, who couldn’t possibly, ever like boys.

“You weren’t a faggot in Boston.” He repeated. Webster stood up and got up in his father’s face.

“Yes I was!” He said. “Remember Sidney Phillips? He was gay too, we used to makeout under the bleachers at the lacrosse games.” His father looked appalled, so Webster kept going. “See? I was gay then, I’m gay now. So it doesn’t matter where you take me, you’re still going to have a faggot for a son.” This time Webster never saw the punch coming.


	20. I'll Keep You Safe Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys are worried about Webster. Joe wants to stab anyone in the face who hurt his boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh I don't think I did as good a job of portraying Joe in this chapter as I meant to. Basically, he's fucking terrified for Webster, and he's so angry at his parents, but he kinda pushes it down because he cares so much for Webster that he just wants to make sure he's alright.

Webster wasn’t in school for a week. By Monday at lunch, all of the boys knew the story, they had heard it from Skip, who was uneasy about telling them but did so because he knew they all cared about Webster and should know what was going on. As the week dragged on their worry only grew. They had called him, and it had gone straight to voicemail, they had shown up at his house and had been turned away by his parents.

If the boys were worried, then Joe was another story. He was a wreck. He came into school looking like he’d barely slept. Everyone knew not to talk about Webster around him, because even words like, “I’m sure he’s fine.” Or “He’s probably just sick or something.” were not appreciated. He was certain he was going to hear about Webster’s body being found on the news any day now.

The boys made a sort of schedule over watching over Joe, it wasn’t a suicide watch or anything serious like that, they just decided at lunch that it would probably be better if they kept him busy. They didn’t want him to have too much time alone to think, it would only make him worse.

So when the weekend came and there was still no word about Webster, Skinny dragged Joe over his house after school and all the boys met them there. They had a video game tournament and pointedly didn’t talk about Webster, or school, or parents, or anything that wasn’t the game they were currently playing. They fell asleep around each other in the warm basement. It was late in the night, early into the next morning when Joe’s voice came out of the dark.

“He’s probably dead.” He said. “He literally told me if his parents found out they would kill him. He actually said that.”

“He isn’t dead.” Toye replied.

“Well then where is he? What are they doing to him?” It was quiet for a long moment.

“Wednesday.” Winters said. “If we haven’t seen him by Wednesday we’re going to the police.”

Joe closed his eyes tight and prayed to god they saw Webster by Wednesday.

 

Webster was back in school on Monday. The moment he walked in the door Skip was out of he seat. He stood in front of his desk, staring with eyes gaping wide as Webster shambled across the front of the room to his own seat. He looked terrible. There were dark circles under his eyes, a nasty looking bruise on his cheek and around his nose. His hair was greasy, his lip was split, and he didn’t even say anything to his obviously worried friend as he sat down. Skip just stared at him.

“Webster?” He finally said, “Are you alright?” Webster turned to look at him and Skip realized how gaunt his face looked, how hollow his eyes seemed.

“Yeah.” He said, his voice soft but coarse. “I’m fine.” Skip wasn’t sure what to say, because obviously Webster wasn’t fine. He didn’t get the chance to say anything else thought because at that moment the door to the classroom was thrown open and there was Joe. Ron must’ve texted him saying that Webster was there. He rushed over to his boyfriend’s seat, took one look at him, then knelt down next to his chair. Webster’s head was turned forward and he was looking down at his lap. Joe talked softly to him and Skip couldn’t hear what they said. Near the end of the conversation he did hear Joe ask,

“What do you want to do? Do you want to go back to my house? We can go right now.” Webster shook his head.

“I just want to stay in school.” He said. Joe nodded and that’s when it hit Skip. Webster wanted to stay in school because he felt safe here. Because he didn’t have anything to fear. Joe stayed kneeling, took Webster’s face in his hands, turned his head so he was looking at Joe, and brought his head down so their foreheads touched.

“Nothing’s going to happen to you.” He said, then he stood up and hesitantly walked out the door.

Webster didn’t talk without being talked to first, for all of the class. When Skip asked him if he had the homework that was due last week, he shook his head no and Skip noticed then that he didn’t have his bag at all.

“Why don’t you have your stuff?” He asked, Webster shrugged.

“It was in the living room.” He said. Skip didn’t know why that was supposed to mean Webster couldn’t bring it, but he didn’t press the matter. By lunch everyone had got the news that Webster was back, and that he wasn’t in very good condition. Skinny was ranting about to the lunch table while Webster was getting his food.

“It’s his fucking parents, man. We’ve all met them. Fucking conservative assholes. Homophobes. Saw their son kissing a dude and thought they could beat the gay out of him, same old story. We’ve all heard it before.” He was steaming, the thought of someone hurting his friend, especially said friend’s own parents made him want to hit something.

“So what’s going to happen to Webster?” Lipton asked.

“I’ll tell you what’s not going to happen. He’s not going back home. Stay at fucking mine if he doesn’t have anyplace else. And we’re going to the police and-.”

“Skinny.” Luz interrupted. “Shh.” He looked pointedly behind Skinny where Webster was coming up with a tray full of food. The table fell silent as he pulled a chair back and sat down. He was quiet as well, just looking down at the slice of pizza he wasn’t eating.

“Webster.” Winters said, “Are you okay?” Webster looked over at him.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He replied.

“That eye looks bad.” Eugene said, sitting in the seat next to Webster. “Do you mind if I-.” He put his hand up to touch the bruise but stopped when Webster flinched back. It was quiet again for a moment, everyone seemed at a loss for what to say. Finally Winters coughed.

“Webster, I was thinking, after school, could you give me a ride home? Nix can’t because he has… something.” He didn’t want Webster going home but couldn’t think of a way to say that.

Webster looked down and shook his head.

“I don’t have my car.”

“What do you mean, you don’t have it?”

Webster shrugged.

“I mean, I climbed out my window this morning and walked to school.” There was yet another minute of silence.

“Webster,” Lipton asked gently, “what exactly happened?” And that was when the story came out. Webster told them about how his parents wanted to move back to Boston, thinking it was the new city that had made him gay,

“They weren’t too happy to find out I had been very gay back in Boston as well.” He didn’t say anything about the bruises, he didn’t need to, they could piece that together themselves. He told them about how his parents had left him up in his room all week. He tried to sneak down at night once but couldn’t find his car keys and rushed back upstairs in a hurry when he heard someone waking up. He told them about how on Wednesday his mom had come up and begged him, straight up begged him to not be gay.

“Maybe the thing is, is that you’ve never actually tried to be straight.”

Webster laughed bitterly,

“You think I haven’t? You think I wasn’t terrified when I realized? Terrified because I knew this was exactly the reaction I’d get if you ever found out?”

He told them about how all he really got to eat that whole week was the snacks he had in his desk, and the half-drunk waters around the room. He told them that that morning he had woken up to the sound of his dad pushing something under his pullout stairs so he couldn’t push them down to get out. That was when the fear really set in, that maybe they weren’t ever going to come back up, or let him back down. It was an irrational fear but it sent him climbing out the window and down the tree and running far from his house.

He told them all of this in a shaky voice and they were dead silent as he did it. “I’m so sorry, man.” Nixon said softly. “That sucks.” Webster nodded.

“If you need a place to stay,” Skinny added, “my house is always open.”

“Thanks.” Webster said. “But I think I’m going to be staying at Joe’s for awhile.”

“Well that’s great at least.”

Webster was in Gym when the call came over the intercom. Health had been a quarter long class and it switched over to Gym once that quarter was up. He had it with Guarnere and Toye, and also Skip, Winters, Nixon, and Malarkey.

“David Webster to the main office, please.” The secretary’s voice said. Webster’s entire body tensed up and Toye and Guarnere, who were sitting on the bleachers behind him, looked at each other.

The secretary at the office saw dozens of kids a day. She could not be expected to remember them all. She had no idea what David Webster looked like. So when a young boy walked in and said,   
            “I’m David Webster.” She nodded and pointed him to where his father was standing. She watched the boy walk over to him, then looked back down at her computer.

“Who the hell are you?” Mr. Webster asked angrily as the dark-haired boy approached him.

“Hi,” He said, “I’m Joseph Toye. And I’m just coming to tell you the Webster isn’t going to be going home with you.”

“You little shit.” Webster’s dad growled. Toye just shrugged.

“Whatever. All I know is I’m not the one who punched their son in the face. You’re lucky I came here instead of Guarnere, he’d be fighting you already.”

“That’s my son in there.” He pointed to the door that led into the rest of the school. “You can’t keep him from me.”

“Sure I can. There’s ten boys inside who would all jump in front of bullets to protect their friends. They’re not just gonna let one go home to his abusive, homophobic parents.”

“My son isn’t gay.”

Toye shrugged again.

“Tell the police that when they’re putting you in handcuffs. I’m sure they’d care to know, but I certainly don’t.” And with that he turned and walked back into the school. Before doing that though he walked over to the secretary and said, eyes wide with false fear,

“That’s not my dad.”

Her eyes widened as well, and then she looked over at Webster’s dad, still brooding angry.

“Sir,” she said, “I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” He gave both of them a glare, but then left.

“How’d it go?” Guarnere asked when Toye got back to the gym and joined them sitting. “Did you pop ‘im one?”

“I didn’t hit him, Guarnere.” Toye said, “I just told him to stay away from Webster.”

“I don’t know guys.” Webster said uneasily, “They’re my parents, I-.”

“Woah bro,” Guarnere cut in, “don’t even finish that sentence. You are not going home to those assholes. Ever. You got that?” Webster mumbled a response then looked back down.

 

Joe didn’t pay attention to calculus the entire class. He was too busy watching Webster. The boy was obviously changed from the last time he’d seen him. He seemed smaller almost, hunched in as if he was trying to hide. He was quieter, he seemed fragile. It made Joe angrier than anything, that someone could possibly hurt that beautiful boy. He wanted to find Webster’s parents and beat the shit out of them, for hurting someone they were supposed to be the ones protecting. It was fucked, and his mom agreed, which was why when he called her at lunch and told her what was going on she was appalled.

“Let him know he’s staying at our place. For as long as necessary.” She said. When class was over Webster took Joe’s bus with him back to his house. He didn’t say much the entire ride. They walked inside and Joe’s mom was on them in an instant.

“Oh David honey.” She said sadly, taking in his face. “Come here.” She pulled him in and he stiffened but allowed her to hug him. “Okay,” She said when she let him go. “I’m making an early supper today because I have to work later, so why don’t you help me, Joey, and we can talk to David.”

“Alright, Ma.” Joe said, leading Webster into the kitchen. Webster and Joe sat down at the island in the kitchen while she moved around the stove. She put spaghetti in the pot of boiling water, then turned back to the boys.

“David, I am so sorry this happened to you.” She said softly. “It disgusts me, it really does, that a mother could do this to her child. I really just can’t-.” She stopped, calming herself before she got worked up. “Tomorrow, if I take another night shift, will you come to the police office with me to talk to the officers there?” She asked Webster gently. Webster looked down at his hands in his lap.

“I have school.” He mumbled.

“True, but you’re really smart. I’m sure you have great grades, and can miss a day, especially when it’s for something important. Am I right?” Joe realized that she was talking to Webster as if he were a little child.

“I guess.” Webster said.

“Great.” She smiled. “Now, David. I believe I left my glasses upstairs on my nightstand. Do you think you could go grab them for me?” He nodded, and got up to walk to the stairwell.

“That poor, poor, boy.” Katja said once he was out of earshot.

“I know.” Joe said. “Mom, what do you think will happen if we go to the police? What will they do with his parents? What will happen to him?” Katja sighed.

“I don’t know Joey, there will most likely be some kind of court case. If they are found guilty there’ll probably be some jail time. But as for him… I don’t know, maybe a home?”

“He can’t go to a home.” Joe shook his head fervently, “No way. If something like that happens, he’s staying here.” Joe’s mom smiled at him proudly.

“You’re such a lovely boy.” She said.

Joe’s siblings were happy to see Webster again, turned out they all liked him. And besides a few questions like,

“What happened to your face?”

“Why was Joey so worried?”

“Did you get into a fight?”

there really wasn’t much talk about what had happened to Webster. To Webster it was like a haven, the kids were just as loud and happy as they were last time he was there. It helped him forget things he didn’t want to think about. Later in the night Joe’s mom went to work, placing a kiss on both of the older boys’ foreheads. Webster watched Joe put all of his younger siblings to bed, then they went into his room. Katja had blown up an air mattress earlier and put it on the floor next to Joe’s bed, but neither of them hesitated with climbing into Joe’s bed.

Webster was lying closest to the wall, his head on the pillow and his back to Joe. Joe sank lower on the mattress and wrapped his arms around Webster’s waist, nuzzling his face into the small of Webster’s back.

“I’m so glad you’re okay.” He mumbled. Webster could feel his lips moving on his back. “I’m sorry that happened to you.” He continued. Webster turned around so they were facing each other.

“It wasn’t your fault.” He said, sounding more like the old him than he had all day.

“I know.” Joe moved so their lips were only a centimeter apart. “But I’d take it all away if I could.” Webster nodded.

“I know you would.” And he closed the distance between their mouths, kissing Joe with a fervor that made up for the time they’d been apart. There were tongues moving against each other, teeth smashed together, when they pulled back for breath they were gasping, staring into each other’s eyes.

“I love you.” Joe breathed. Webster blinked, shocked. Then he grinned as if Joe’s confession made up for everything that had happened to him, which Joe knew it didn’t, and he kissed Joe again. They made love that night quickly and desperately, breathing into each other, gripping tightly, holding in moans so as not to wake any of the sleeping children in the rooms around them. They fell asleep against each other, Webster first, his face soft and innocent, contrasting sharply against the gruesome bruises on his face, then Joe, who was looking at Webster, and thinking about how angry he’d be, if anything else were to happen to this boy.


	21. Well Hello, Officer, Fancy Meeting You Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The police station, and a lawyer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gotta admit, don't know that much about what goes down when someone reports child abuse, did my best. Had to google jail times for child abuse so i think they're pretty accurate. Don't hate if the way I went about it was completely wrong. Also spoilers for the walking dead in this chapter. If you haven't seen the most recent episode... well sorry.

The police station was slow the next day. Katja drove Joe and Webster and the three of them walked in together. It was almost eleven in the morning. Katja walked them over to the man sitting at the front desk and stated,

“We’d like to make a child abuse report.” The man gave them the proper paperwork and told them to fill it out and an officer would be with them shortly. Katja asked Webster if he wanted her help to fill out the paperwork but he told her he could do it on his own. They were there for hardly five minutes when an officer walked over. Webster looked up and didn’t know if he should laugh or not.

“Hello, officer.” He greeted the familiar face. “Fancy meeting you here.” The officer looked confused, not as if he didn’t recognize or remember Webster, but more like he couldn’t comprehend the scenario in which he was seeing him again.

“You guys are reporting child abuse?” He asked. Katja nodded and stood up,

“Yes, I’m Miss Liebgott, this is my son and his boyfriend David. We’re all here on behalf of David.” The officer looked at all of them, Webster for a moment longer, taking in his face most likely.

“Alright.” He said, gesturing with one hand, “Come with me.” He led them into a back room where they all sat down at a wooden table. He took the paperwork from Webster, and flipped it open while he sat down as well.

“Do you guys want any water?” He asked. Everyone shook their heads. “Okay, I’m Officer Corrigan, and I’ll be the one working your case. So… David, why don’t you tell us what happened?” So Webster retold the story, identical to the one he’d told at lunch the day prior, except this time he didn’t edit out the punches. Everyone was tense as he talked, but Joe’s mom was an encouraging presence, telling him at every pause that he was doing great. When he finished and the officer had finished jotting down notes on his paperwork he looked up and it was quiet for a moment.

“And you want to press charges?” Officer Corrigan asked. Webster nodded slowly. Then he tilted his head.

“What will happen with me if I do?” The officer looked over at Miss Liebgott.

“Well I assume you’re staying at your boyfriend’s house, right?” He asked, Webster nodded. “Well then you’ll stay with them until the court case. Anything after that will most likely be decided by a judge.”

“And when’s the court case going to be?” Joe asked, speaking for the first time since they’d got there. A rage had grown in his eyes the more into the story Webster had gone, and now he was full-out pissed, he wanted Webster’s parents to pay for what had happened. He wanted retribution and he wanted it soon.

“That, I have no idea. Could be next week, could be next month. It all has to do with openings.” He looked back at Webster, and his eyes softened. He turned back to Joe and Joe knew he understood where his anger was coming from. “I will try my hardest to make sure it gets the soonest spot as possible.” He said. Joe nodded, accepting that that was the best the officer could do. They left the station around three. After talking to the officer they had to go down to forensics, where photos of not just the bruises but all over Webster’s body were taken. They explained to him all the tests they would be running with all the samples they took, but Webster didn’t pay too much attention to it. He just wanted to go back to Joe’s house.

Finally they were let go with the last word being that they would get a call with any information about a court hearing that Corrigan had. Katja thanked him and they left.

“You did amazing.” She told Webster as she drove them back to the house. Joe linked his fingers through Webster’s, their hands sitting in the middle seat of the back row. Webster looked over at him. “I’m sure that wasn’t easy for you.” She continued. Webster smiled at Joe and squeezed their hands. “I’m just really proud of you, sweetie.”

They got back to the house and the boys lounged out in Joe’s room. Webster was looking through Joe’s comics and Joe was doing some homework on the computer. Joe’s phone dinged and Webster grabbed it to read it.

“Malark texted you.” Webster said. “He said, ‘How’s Webster doing? How was the station? We’re thinking about binge watching the new season of the Walking Dead at my house tonight cause Skip hasn’t seen it yet. You two coming?’ I actually haven’t seen the new Walking Dead either.” Webster admitted as he put the phone down.

“So you wanna go?” Joe asked, pushing his swivel chair back from the computer.

“Yeah, why not.” Webster shrugged. So Joe’s mom let them take her car, and they went to Malarkey’s house. Pretty much everyone was already there.

“Webster!” Malarkey greeted him excitedly when he walked into the entertainment room. “I didn’t get to see you yesterday, how are you doing bro?” Webster shrugged.

“I’ve been better.” He said honestly, “But I’m alright now.” It was easy to notice the difference in Webster from the previous day. He met people’s eyes, and talked more. He laughed and didn’t flinch at sudden movements. It was amazing what one day had fixed.

“So I can’t believe you guys haven’t watched this yet.” Perconte said as they all settled onto the floor and the couch. Webster was between Joe and Lipton.

“Not all of us live our lives on Neflix, Perco.” Skip said. Someone shut off the lights and they started the show.

“I might cry when Beth dies.” Babe whispered into Gene’s ear. “It’s so goddamn sad when Daryl is holding her.”

“YOU DID NOT JUST SAY THAT.” Skip shouted angrily, turning to the ginger. “YOU DID NOT JUST TELL ME MY BAE DIES.”

“It’s been all over every form of social media!” Babe defended himself. “Come on, how could you not know?”

“MAYBE I BLOCKED SPOILER TAGS. EVER THOUGHT OF THAT?”

“Oh… sorry.”

“Goddammit Heffron.” Skip sighed. It was quiet again after that, they were all too intent on the screen. But Webster was very aware of all of his friends around him, and could not help thinking about how thankful he was that he had all of them.

 

The rest of the week passed by pretty slowly. Everyone was waiting for some word from the police about the court date. Joe and Webster got rides to school with Eugene, who had gotten a Volvo the week prior. Webster had the problem of his stuff, all of it was still in his room, until Luz told him he could handle it.

“What do you mean by that?” Webster asked, confused. Luz just waved him off.

“Just don’t worry about it, I got this.” The next day Luz came into school with Webster’s duffel bag that was in his closet filled with clothes, his laptop, and a bunch of books.

“What?” Webster dug around through the bag, confirming that it was, in fact, all his stuff. “How did you…?”

“My ninja skills are unparalleled.” Luz assured him. “And the assholes are deep sleepers.” That’s what Webster’s parents were now known as, the assholes. It was the name given officially to them by Skinny, after enough time of them being referred to as “your asshole parents.” Webster was the only one who didn’t call them that.

It was on Sunday that the call came. It wasn’t Corrigan, but it was an officer who told them that the court case was going to be the upcoming Wednesday. He gave them the number for the lawyer that had been assigned to Webster through the Child Protective Services. Katja called her not ten minutes later. They set up a meeting for the next day, after school. She was already there drinking coffee with Katja when Webster and Joe got dropped off by Gene.

“Hey, is it cool if we go to the hearing?” Babe asked seriously when the car rolled to a stop in front of Joe’s house, “We just thought you’d need the support.”

“Yeah, it’s fine.” Webster replied. They walked in and the woman stood up to introduce herself.

“Hi, you must be David, I’m Leana Basilone, you can call me Leana, I’ll be your lawyer for Wednesday.” She seemed nice enough. She had curly brown hair that was pulled back and a warm smile. She had a very professional air to her, but there was a flare in her eye when she looked at Webster’s bruises that showed it was masking some motherliness.

“Hi.” He said back. She sat back down so he pulled out the chair opposite her and dropped in it. Joe took the seat next to him. Leana looked over at him.

“And you must be Joe, the boyfriend.” She smiled. Joe gave her the same aggressive look he gives all new people, it’s an untrusting look but Webster’s learned that it goes away quite quickly. Leana got down to business immediately.

“Alright, by now the police station has most likely already alerted your parents about the court case coming up. Which means they’re going to be working with their own lawyer.” Webster knew his parents’ lawyer, he was a slim man who was most likely born wearing an H&M suit and was incredibly amazing at what he did. “We have a pretty good case,” Leana continued, “seeing how your face is practically evidence enough you were hit, and discovering their son is gay gives them motive, and we have your friend who spoke with your dad at the school. Do you think he’d be willing to say a few things on the stand?” Webster nodded without thinking about it, his friends would burn the entire court room down if he asked.

“I have a question, though.” Joe said. Leana looked at him and nodded for him to speak. “So we go to court and his parents get found guilty. What then? What will happen to them? And him?” Leana thought about this for a moment.

“Well let’s look at the chances of them both getting jail time. Your father, definitely, for aggravated assault of a minor, and a hate crime, would get at the very least ten years, at the most… maybe thirty. Your mother, she could probably get hate crime as well, because she was present and aware of the crime taking place, and her behavior points toward her encouraging it. And neglect, they left you up in that attic for a week with nothing. She could probably get ten years too.”

“Alright, but what would happen to Web if they both went to jail?” Joe asked.

“He could get put into a home,” Joe opened his mouth to object but she held up a hand to stop him, “ _or,_ or if the judge allows it, he could stay here with your mom as his legal guardian until he’s eighteen.” Webster’s eyes widened as if he couldn’t even imagine that. His head turned sharply to look at Katja.

“Would you ever do that?” He asked, surprised. Katja just smiled at him warmly.

“I’ve already got more kids than I can count running around here.” She shrugged, “What’s one more gonna do?” Webster’s mouth was hanging open, he had no idea what to say.

“I-I, uh…”

“Hey.” Leana said, not unkindly, “Why don’t we save the thank you’s and such until after we win the case.” Webster looked back over at her.

“Alright.”


	22. Let's Invade The Court System

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gettin ready for the court case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! So I don't think I'm gonna actually do the court scene, because with my only knowledge of trials coming from a Tom Cruise movie, I think it would be better for everyone if I just glossed over it. Also, this is almost over actually. Maybe two chapters left. Also also, I have a photo my friend Alli sent me of little Lieb wearing Web's Arctic Monkeys tee but I have no idea how to do a hyperlink on here so if someone could tell me a way to share the photo with all of you, that would be great!

Webster didn’t go to school the next day. Joe moped and whined when Katja said he had to go, but like she kept telling him, he couldn’t help Webster much with the gathering of his case so he might as well be in class so he didn’t miss anything. Webster called Toye over after school was out and he said he’d gladly talk in the court about what had happened in the school with Webster’s dad.

“It wasn’t much, but anything to help I guess.” He said.

“Just wish you could bring your brass knuckles into the courtroom, knock him around a few times.” Guarnere mumbled from where he was sitting at the island in Joe’s kitchen.

“I don’t think that would help.” Webster said. Guarnere shrugged.

“Might help you feel better.”

“I feel fine.” Webster tried to convince him. That was a thing Webster had been doing a lot of these past days, trying to convince the boys he was fine, that he would be okay seeing his parents on Wednesday. Well Wednesday came and Webster woke up early, he untangled himself from Joe and got out of bed. He walked over to the closet and looked at the suit that Leana had brought for him. He heard Joe mumble and move around.

“Mmm what the fuck time is it?” He groaned. Webster looked at the clock.

“Almost eight.”

“Jesus, that’s too early to be up.” He turned back over and put his head on the pillow again.

“You would be up earlier than this if you were actually going to school today!” Webster pointed out.

“Yeah but that’s not a choice, I have to get up at that time. Your case is not until one, Leana wants us at the court by noon, which means we don’t have to wake up until, at the least, ten. Come on, two more hours of sleep.” He put his arm out and gestured for Webster to come back to the bed. Webster was about to, but then his phone rang. He had had his phone on him when he snuck out of his house the previous week, but the service had been off. When Katja heard of this she put him on their service plan, so he could use his phone again.

Webster stopped walking across the room and looked down at his phone, it was Luz.

“What is it?” Webster asked, the phone to his ear.

“Hey man,” Luz’s voice greeted him. There was music playing in the background but Webster couldn’t make out what it was. “You’re tech savvy, right?”

“Umm, not as much as Nixon, but I guess.”

“Yeah well I can’t go to Nixon with this problem because he’s the one who caused it.”

“What? What did he do?”

“Well remember how the other day I said I couldn’t stand Lana Del Ray?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s possible he replaced all my songs on iTunes with Lana Del Ray songs and set it up so they would start playing every time I opened up my computer. And I don’t know how to make it stop or get my other songs back. The volume button isn’t working, I’ve listened to Blue Jeans sixteen times, please help me.” Webster might’ve been too busy laughing at that moment to reply. “Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want, just help me, _please_.”

“Don’t you know by now not to let Nixon use your laptop?” Webster asked.

“He said he had to do homework! I wasn’t gonna let him fail! Now are you gonna help me or not?”

“Alright, alright. Bring it by here when you come over and I’ll see what I can do.”

“Okay, thanks man. You’re the best.”

“I’m aware.”

Most of the boys had taken off the day from school, a few, like Harry, Babe, and Speirs, were just going to half of their classes, but they were all going to the court. Luz, Skinny, Nixon, Winters, Guarnere, and Toye were all hanging out at Joe’s house before the case.

Webster decided he was too awake now to go back to sleep, so he walked over to the bed and put his hands on Joe’s form under the covers, pushing him slightly.

“Come on, Joe, get up. We don’t want to have to be rushing before everyone comes over.”

“Mmmmm how about no.” Joe mumbled. Webster pulled the comforter back, Joe was wearing Web’s Arctic Monkeys t-shirt and a pair of checked boxers. Webster crawled onto the bed and hung his body over Joe’s.

“Joe,” he said, his voice low, “wake up.” He skimmed his fingers under the waistline of Joe’s boxers. Joe just mumbled some more. “Joe,” he repeated, his mouth right by Joe’s ear, “come on.” He slipped his hand into Joe’s underwear and wrapped his fingers around his dick. He watched Joe’s eyes blink open.

“I’m up.” He said. Webster chuckled and felt Joe start to go hard in his hand. He saw Joe looking at his mouth, then licked his lips. “Oh lord.” Joe muttered. Webster grinned and pressed their lips together. Joe groaned into his open mouth when he started moving his hand up and down on him. He felt Joe’s back arch upwards and their chests pressed together.

“Oh god, don’t stop.” Joe moaned. Webster wasn’t really planning on it. He kissed along Joe’s jawline, his tongue really exploring the soft spot of his neck under his chin that was visible when he threw his head back. When Joe finished off he got off of him after a last kiss to his forehead.

“Okay, now you’re awake.” He said. “Now go shower so we can get ready.”

“I feel violated.” Joe said exasperatedly, then he sat up. “Please wake me up like that every morning. Webster laughed.

“You wish, Lieb.”

“Oh I do, I really do.” Joe said as he pushed off the bed and walked out into the hall and straight into the bathroom. Webster heard the shower running as he went back to look at the suit again. He didn’t really want to get changed into it right away, too much time for it to get messed up, so he just pulled some sweatpants on and walked downstairs. Flo was sitting at the kitchen island, eating some Lucky Charms. She was the only kid that was still in elementary school, which didn’t start until nine.

“Hi, Davey.” She said, she was also the only one that called Webster that, but he didn’t mind.

“Hey kid, how’s it going?” He said, walking to the cabinet to grab a bowl so he could pour himself some.

“Okay. Are you getting ready for your thing?” Webster was pretty sure none of the kids really knew what was going on with him, but they did know it was something, and that something about it was happening today. Webster nodded at her.

“Yep. Are you getting ready for school?” Flo nodded as well.

“Yep.”

Webster poured his bowl of cereal, and sat at the table with her while she prattled on about the solar system project they were doing in her class. After a little bit Joe came down as well, his hair wet.

“Hey, Flo.” He greeted his sister. She said hey back, then got up to dump the leftovers in her bowl into the sink. Then she went into her room. Joe made himself breakfast and sat down across from Webster.

“So, you okay?” He asked, Webster looked up from his food at him.

“Huh?”

“Well, I mean, this is going to be the first time you’ve seen your parents since… well since it happened. Are you ready for that?”

“Yeah, I’m alright.” Webster assured him. Joe looked at him skeptically.

“Webster.” He said, serious, “They are your parents. And they hit you and starved you and now you are going to court to get them possibly thrown in jail.”

“Well when you put it like that…” Webster said. It was quiet then for a moment. “Joe, after my dad hit me the first time, I freaked out so bad I threw up and blacked out on my bed. So that’s the low point, that’s there, and then going up, as high as you can go, the whole other end of the spectrum, that’s what being with you is like.” Joe was silent as Webster explained. “So maybe it’s not okay at all, but believe me when I say that I’m fine.”

 

Luz got there about twenty minutes later. He was toting his laptop and Webster had him bring it upstairs so he could look at it.

“Don’t take the headphones out of it.” He said as Webster placed it on Joe’s desk, pushing comic books and food wrappers out of the way. “They’re in there so that I can’t hear the god awful music that’s playing.”

“Alright.”

It took Webster a little bit but he figured out that Nixon had stored all the music in an off-site file, and that he could back up the file to iTunes to put all of it back. He also isolated the Lana Del Ray songs, which he put in their own folder, and then had Luz watch as he ceremoniously dumped them all in the trash.

“Clear it.” Luz told him, and he did.

“There.” He said, once he’d gone into the settings and reactivated the volume controls and iTunes functions. “Everything is back the way it was before you gave Nixon access to your laptop.”

“Thank you so much, man.” Luz sighed in relief. Then he flopped back on Joe’s bed. Joe was sitting on his beanbag, playing a game on his phone. “So is that what your going to be wearing today?” He asked, pointing up at the suit that was visible through the open door to Joe’s closet. Webster nodded.

“Yeah, my lawyer picked it out for me.”

“Do you think you’re all ready for this?”

Webster shrugged,

“I mean I might as well get it over with. Just, whatever is going to happen to them will happen.”

“Oh right, I forgot to mention. Last night I went over to your place, grabbed you these.” He reached into his pocket and held out his hand, Webster’s car keys were right there in his palm.

“Holy shit.” Webster reached out for them in a flash. “How did you get these?” Luz shrugged.

“They were on your mom’s dresser.”

“And you were in my mom’s room because….?”

“Because I was looking for your keys, obviously.” Luz stated. “I drove your car here, I hope you don’t mind. If the assholes go to jail, I don’t want you to have to worry about what’s going to happen to it.”

“Yes. That’s what we were worried about.” Joe said sarcastically, looking up from his phone. “His parents might go to jail but we weren’t worried about what was going to happen to him, no we were freaking out wondering what would become of his lovely car.” Luz was silent for only a moment.

“Point taken.” He said.

The other boys got there not too much later. When they all came in Luz made a point to shove Nixon with excessive force. He knocked into the island and widened his eyes.

“What was that for?” He asked.

“You know what you did.” Luz said angrily. Nixon pretended to think about it,

“I don’t understand, didn’t you say you _loved_ Lana Del Ray?” He said with fake innocence. Luz made a move to shove him again and Winters got between them.

“Not that I don’t think he deserves it, but can we please not break anything in Joe’s kitchen?” They weren’t going to the courthouse until noon, and it was only ten-thirty, so they played some games to pass the time. Guarnere had brought Cards Against Humanity with him, so they sat around on the floor in Joe’s room and he dealt out everyone’s cards. The first black card was _It’s a pity that kids these days are getting involved with ______._

Toye won with _Gay sex._

Luz came up with a new company idea when the black card was _Step one ______, step two ________, step three: profit._ and he played the white cards _Surprise vasectomy_ and _Orphan salesman._ Everyone decided Winters was a lot more twisted than they’d originally thought when the black card was _Sometimes I get secretly turned on by _______._ and he played _Animal corpses._

“Jesus this game does bring out the worst in people.” Nixon said, giving his boyfriend a weird look, Winters just shrugged.

They played for a long while, it was the perfect thing to ease any nerves Webster might have about the upcoming case. Eventually Joe’s mom came up and told him they would be leaving soon, so he should probably get changed. They put the cards back in the box and Webster put his suit on.

“You look damn fine.” Guarnere said when he came back into the room.

“Hey! I’m supposed to be the one saying that!” Joe snapped at him, then he turned to Webster. “You look damn fine.” He repeated. Webster smiled.

“Thanks.” He said, then he looked around at his friends. “All right, let’s go invade the court system.”

 


	23. Basilone more like Badassilone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the court case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys this is the penultimate chapter! Yay! Or boo, depending on how you look at it. But yep, next chapter is the end.

“What a motherfucking badass.”

“I know, right?”

“Seriously she’s like goddamn Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men. She was one frame away from yelling ‘I WANT THE TRUTH.”

The case was over and the boys were getting dinner at Applebee’s discussing it. Leana had been great, really putting Webster’s parents on the stand and making them responsible for their actions. She didn’t stand for any bullshit. Skinny and Babe were going back and forth about how amazing they thought she was.

“Basilone more like Badassilone.”

Skip, Malarkey and Luz were talking about something Skip had said to the judge, who happened to be an attractive younger guy, as they were leaving.

“You asked him _what?_ ”

“I meant it respectively!”

“There is no respective way to ask someone to go down on you.”

“Sure there is, it’s not like I walked over and said ‘Is that a gavel in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?’ I’m a classy guy, I just said, ‘Excuse me, your honor, but as a fellow man of the court, I must say that was some fine judging you just did. Really laid down the law, now if you wanna come back to my place, the law won’t be the only thing getting laid, if you know what I mean.”

“Wow. Real classy, real classy.”

Joe and Lipton were talking to Webster about it.

“You did so great.” Joe said.

“Are you happy with how it ended up?” Lipton asked. The judge had found Webster’s parents guilty as charged. His father was getting fifteen years in prison and his mother ten. Webster shrugged.

“I guess I’m glad that it’s over,” was all he would say on the matter. They got their drinks a few minutes later and their conversations started to join together.

“Hey Webster, you know what you missed in gym the other day when you were out?” Guarnere asked him. Skip’s face turned red immediately,

“Don’t tell him the story.” He said.

“Oh I’m telling him the story.” Guarnere laughed. “So we were playing on the rock climbing walls, and they give you this black stuff ya know, to rub on your hands and make them stickier. Better to climb I guess. And Muck here, he gets everyone to rub it on their faces, thinks it looks cool or whatever.”

“You did it too!” Skip protested. Guarnere waved him off and continued.

“So we’re standing around, waiting for our turn to climb. Skip says he has to piss, so he walks off to the bathroom. Malark says he needs to charge his phone, so he walks off to the locker rooms. About sixty seconds later, Skip comes back out. None of us really notice him coming over, but when he gets to us he spins Winters around and plants a big sloppy kiss on his mouth. Everyone is so surprised that no one says anything at first, and then Nixon popped him one.”

Skip groaned, his face in his hands.

“I thought he was Malarkey. They both have red hair, and the black stuff on the face made it hard to tell.”

“Malarkey is a solid foot shorter than him!” Nixon said.

“I know.” Skip groaned again, “I wasn’t thinking, I thought it would be funny, and by the time I realized it was Winters it was too late to save my pretty face.”

“Oh please.” Nixon said, “It’s not even like I left any marks.”

Webster laughed,

“I can’t believe I missed that.”

“Hey.” Winters said, changing the topic from his sexual assault. He held his drink up, and everybody else followed suit. “To Webster, for doing what few kids should ever have to, put his own parents in prison.”

            “Woohoo, go Web!” Babe praised him, and they drank from their glasses.

            After dinner they went back to Skinny’s house, and hung out in his basement. Nixon and Lipton played GTA while everyone watched. Luz and Skip were still talking about the judge from the case. Skip was going on about the things he’d want to do to him, some of them including a powdered wig and a gavel.

            “Come on, man,” Luz said, “have some class.” Skip eyed him.

            “That’s rich, coming from you.”

            “What are you talking about?” Luz looked at him incredulously. “I have class, I have oodles of class, I have so much class that-.”

            “Hey remember that time you grabbed Lipton’s ass while we were saying the pledge in class?” Toye asked. Luz’s eyes widened and his head jerked to the right to look at him.

            “ix-nay, ix-nay. I thought we agreed never to bring that up in front of arky-spay.” He gave Speirs a side-glance, the boy was staring at him intensely. “Uhh…” Luz said, “Hey, Speirs.” Speirs just gave him a terrifying smirk then looked back at the TV. His boyfriend was currently attempting to drive the car he had repossessed up onto the roof of a building.

            “What are you even trying to do?” Speirs asked him. Lipton bit his lip in concentration.

            “If I can get this up here… the police won’t be able to find me.” He explained, not taking his eyes off the TV.

            “The police have helicopters dipshit.” Guarnere said, he was sitting on the floor in front of the couch. Speirs whipped his head and shot him a glare. “But, I mean, it’s a good idea.” Guarnere rushed to fix what he’d said before Speirs hit him.

            Webster was sitting on the couch, Joe was lying across it with his head in Webster’s lap. Webster was running his finger’s through Joe’s messy locks.

            “That lawyer of your parents is a fucking imbecile.” Joe said. Webster nodded at him. “I mean how could you defend someone, knowing that they had beat their kid?”

            “People defend murderers all the time.” Winters pointed out, “It’s just a job for them.”

            “Yeah well it’s fucking stupid.” Joe mumbled. “And when your mom tried to come over to talk to you? What a bitch.” Webster didn’t say anything to that. He thought about after the case, when he had gone to the bathroom, everyone had gone out to the cars to wait for him so he was alone walking out.

            “David.” His mom had come around the corner, there was a police officer next to her, who looked ready to pull her back when he saw Webster, put Webster shook his head, he wanted to hear what his mom had to say.

            “Yeah?” He replied. She looked at him up and down.

            “You always looked so nice in a suit.” She said, he grimaced at her. “That boy you were sitting next to…”

            “Joe.” Webster said.

            “He’s your…?”

            “Boyfriend.” Webster finished the sentence. His mom made a face as if that word physically hurt her. She looked at him intently and he wondered what she was going to say next.

            “And is he worth losing your family for?” The words came out very condescending, and her face was extremely familiar. It was the face she had always given him growing up when he’d done something stupid. She’d ask him a loaded question to make him understand why what’d he’d done was wrong. Something along the lines of,

            “Now, was trying to start a fire in the kitchen sink a smart thing to do?”

            “Do you really think you should’ve been staying up playing video games until midnight the night before a test?”

            “And if Robert asked you to jump off a building, would you?”

She was trying to draw the answer she wanted out of him. She was trying to get him to admit that he’d made a mistake in persecuting his parents. He gave her a steel-eyed look.

            “Yes.” He said seriously. “Yes, he is, they all are. They’re more family than you’ve ever been.” And he turned around and walked out to the cars, not looking back as he went.


	24. Ready For Another Splendid Year?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end, time goes by.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy last chapter everyone! It's been great writing for you all! I hope you all liked it, and I appreciate all the people that read it and all the comments that were left. Please feel free to tell me what you thought of the whole thing. I'd really love to hear it all. Thanks so much!

It was September. First day of school. Webster walked into his first block class, which was AP Literature. He had it with Skinny and Luz. His parents had been in jail for about three months, he hadn’t spoken to or seen them in all that time. He tried not to think about it that much. His friends helped. He lived at the Liebgott’s now. Joe’s mom was better than his had ever been. Joe’s siblings treated him as another older brother.

The summer had been the best one he’d had so far. They went back to Winters’s lake house for a few weeks here and there. They went to the beach a lot, and walked up and down the boardwalk more times than they could count.

Webster’s friend Robert Leckie had come down to visit him for ten days. He had found out what had happened to Webster and insisted to his parents he go. They, who were not homophobic assholes, agreed he should and paid for a hotel room for the time he was there, even though Katja insisted they could find room for him if they didn’t want to pay the money.

“He’s not some like, ex-boyfriend of yours that’s going to try to get you back or something?” Joe asked when Webster informed him that his friend was going to be coming.

“Leck? No, just a friend. I didn’t really… have many boyfriends, or girlfriends, back in Boston.”

Joe just looked at him,

“You’re kidding, face like yours?”

Leckie got along beautifully with all of Webster’s friends, and they enjoyed having another person to show around the city, now that Webster knew it as well as they did. When his flight landed Webster went to pick him up from the airport, then after they went to get lunch just the two of them.

“Geez look at that tan,” Leckie observed, “you’re like a native Californian now.”

“Oh please.” Webster said. “I’ve been here about six months.”

“Yeah well I bet you don’t miss New England at all.”

“Oh definitely not.” Webster shook his head. “Especially the people there, what a bunch of conservative douchebags.”

“Hey!” Leckie punched him in the shoulder and Webster laughed.

“I’m just kidding, Leck. Of course I miss you guys.”

“But you’ve got your little boyfriend now. Joe.” Leckie sang his name. “And all your new friends.”

“Yeah well what about your boyfriend, huh?”

Leckie’s face turned red.

“You heard about that?”

“Of course I did! My best friend starts dating Hoosier, the kid he’s had a crush on since grade school, and you think I wouldn’t find out? Chuckler called me up as soon as it happened.”

After they ate Webster drove them to back to Joe’s house. Malarkey, who had turned sixteen in May, had his car parked out front.

“By the way, I love your car. The bench seat is so retro.” Leckie said as they parked in the driveway next to Katja’s car and walked to the door.

“Yeah, Nix picked it out for me. He knows more about cars than I ever will.” They went inside and up the stairs into his and Joe’s room. Eugene and Malarkey were lying on the bed, each looking at their phones, Skip was sitting in the beanbag chair and Joe was at the desk.

“What are you guys all doing here?” Webster asked when he walked in.

“Waiting for you.” Eugene said, sitting up. “We want to go see a movie.”

“Okay… Well guys, this is Leckie.” He gestured to his friend next to him. “Leckie this is Gene, Malarkey, Skip, and that’s Joe.”

“Ah, the famous Joe.” Leckie stepped forward and stuck his hand out which Joe shook. “I’ve heard a lot about you.” He said.

“Ditto.” Joe said back.

“I’ve been informed by a Cajun that if you don’t treat this boy well you’re gonna get your kneecaps busted.”

“Geez.” Webster groaned. “Tell Snaf to lighten up, alright?”

Leckie left once his visit was up, he hugged Webster in the airport and told him he would have to come up to Boston sometime, the boys back there missed him. Webster swore he would, Joe had never seen Boston.

Joe and Webster slept in the same bed every night, bodies pressed together, breathing in sync. They still fought quite often but the quarrels almost always ended in making out. When Leckie was here he had asked him once,

“Not to sound bad or anything, but didn’t you ever worry? That it wasn’t going to work out between you and Joe, and then you would’ve basically been on your own?” Webster shook his head like that was the craziest thing he’d heard. In all honesty he had never thought of that.

He didn’t think he’d ever get sick of Joe. He’d wake up in the middle of the night and feel Joe’s arm thrown around his waist and think about how crazily attached to the kid he was. How that was amazing because six months ago he didn’t even know him. He’d kiss him all over his face and want to memorize every square inch of him and he found the thought of not being able to work things out with Joe appalling. He found the thought of not going home to Joe repulsing.

“I don’t think the thought of not being with Joe ever really crossed my mind.” He had admitted.

 

“Webster, there’s a seat over here!” Luz informed him as he was walking into the classroom. He saw his friend sitting near the back and he made his way through the rows of desks to drop into the empty one next to him. When Skinny came in he took the seat in front of Webster.

“Hello, men.” He said. “You all ready for another splendid year?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” Webster said. They sat down and looked forward. The teacher, a younger lady named Mrs. Faye was talking to a student. As the bell rang and everyone took their seats she brought the boy to front of the class. He was tall and slender, with soft features and a shy stance.

“Hello, everyone. Welcome back. This is Darrell Powers.”

“Everyone calls me Shifty.” He said, showing off a gentle Virginian accent.

“Okay,” The teacher smiled, “this is Shifty. He’s new here, so I want all of you to be nice to him. Alright? Shifty, why don’t you go take a seat… right there.” She pointed to the desk in front of Luz, next to Skinny. Skinny’s face lit up and he straightened in his chair. His eyes followed Shifty as he walked across the room and to the seat assigned to him.

Webster leaned over in his chair and whispered in Luz’s ear.

“Bet you twenty bucks they hook-up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that was it! My friend Alli keeps bugging me that I should start writing a sequel about Skinny and Shifty, I don't know. it's possible I might. Im a huge nerd for these boys. Idk what do you all think?


End file.
